La Cañada Observatory, is an initiative by Juan Lacruz, the observatory started astrometric operations in the summer of 2002, it is registered as station J87 in the Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Union.

The Observatory also participates in the studies on minor bodies promoted by the Group on Meteorites, Minor Bodies, and Planetary Sciences of the Institute of Space Sciences (CSIC-IEEC).



Saturday, March 22, 2008

One asteroid for La Cañada

Asteroid (159164) 2005 JC22 La Cañada. The asteroid, discovered on 2005 may the 3th by the J87 observatory, has been named "La Cañada" after the town where the observatory is located. "Cañada", a spanish word meaning transhumance route. The town gets its name from a nearby Cañada. Orbit graphic (JPL).

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Amor NEO 2008 EM8

2008 EM8, was detected as an unidentified object at La Cañada Observatory on 2008 Mar 08, because its special movement I reported it as NEOCP (Near Erth Object Confirmation Page) candidate to the MPC(Minor Planet Center) but it didn't make through the NEO confirmation page.

I contacted Rafael Ferrando at observatory 941 Pla d'Arguines, he confirmed its existence and sent the observations to the MPC.

Only objects with a NEO rating above 50% get to the confirmation page and this one, using the data from J87 La Cañada and 941 Pla d'Arguines observations, "only" scored 46%.

Two days later, on 2008 Mar 10 the MPC issued a discovery circular MPEC 2008-E82 crediting the discovery to the observatory G96 Mount Lemmon 1.5m reflector with a single night two days before.

This object is an AMOR NEO with perihelion q = 1.28.

Finally I got the designation back from the MPC to confirm that my unidentified observations belong to this NEO on 2008 March the 12th.