Asteroids, minor planets, Centaurs, KBOs, TNOs and other such members of the zoo.

[Xilman]

Anyone else here interested in minor objects out in the solar system and would fancy building up a rogue's gallery?

For the past 4 years I have been imaging small satellites of the gas and ice giant planets but I am starting to run out of candidates within range of the equipment here. A few asteroids, Kuiper Belt Objects and/or Trans-Neptunian Objects have been imaged, occasionally serendipitiously.

If there is interest, perhaps we could image and make available a collection of these beasties. Some are bright, naked-eye even (Vesta), and some are exceedingly faint so there is something available to most everyone.  Real  challenges include Trojans of Earth, Mars, Uranus and Neptune.

There are well over 100K such things known, far beyond the capabilities of any one observer to record them all.  Many of the fainter and/or recently discovered objects have poorly determined orbits so images of them have real scientific value.

The image shows Nereid and (16095) Lorenball, the latter being an entirely unintended target.

 

[Pete Presland]

Sounds like a great idea, i have only  attempted to capture a couple of the brighter objects a few years back.