Our Mission

The mission of the Minor Planet Project is to gather astrometric observations of Small Solar-System Bodies and submit those measurements to the Minor Planet Center. Our goals are to obtain follow up observations on One-Opposition Unnumbered Objects with high uncertainties and newly found Near Earth Objects so their orbits can be better defined. The Doc Greiner Research Observatory is a robotic observatory controlled entirely over the internet. The Doc Greiner Research Observatory is located outside Evansville, Wisconsin.

Follow-up Astrometry

Follow-up astrometry and recoveries are made with the Meade LX200-ACF 16"(0.4-m) telescope with focal reducer at f/8 at the Doc Greiner Research Observatory (MPC H26). The SBIG STL-1001E 1x1K CCD has 24 micron pixels and a 24'x24' field with our set up. It is typically used with 1x1 binning giving us 1.44 arc-seconds per pixel for this combination. The telescope can be pointed with an accuracy of about 5 arc-seconds mounted on the Paramount ME.  All images are unguided of  less than 180 second exposure durations.  NEOs are imaged at tracking rates between 2-30 arc-seconds/minute.

Data Reduction

All data are reduced on a PC. Flat-fielding, bias and dark field subtraction are done using MaxIm DL. The astrometry is done with Astrometrica or PinPoint software.  WCS coordinates are added to the FITS files using the UCAC2  and USNO B1.0 catalogs.  Remote control operation over the internet is possible using ACP, TheSky6, FocusMax and MaxIm DL.