On 03 Feb 2013, at 07:41, Daniel Holmes wrote:
...and I didn't realize you gave up minor planet searches either.
"Gave up" may not be entirely accurate. On slow nights I have been known to point the scope at areas of the sky where the MPC says no known minor planets exist and shoot a few pictures. But with the wide-field automated searches gobbling new finds (most of those fainter than mag 20) every night many of us with modest sized telescopes read the writing on the wall long ago and switched to follow up work on known MPs. For a feel of how easy it used to be, read this piece by Dennis DiCicco at S&T which was published in the late 1990s: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/asteroids/3305146.html?page... I could not find a date on the piece however the caption to the picture on the last page refers to 5,000 numbered minor planets. That number passed half a million long ago. patrick