New discoveries from Santa Maria de Montmagastrell Survey

                                     Spain sucks, so Catalonia wants to be independent



Total asteroids discovered from B74 : 189

Total asteroids discovered from Observatori de les Planes de Son (MPC C29) : 13

All discoveries from B74 and from C29 = 202
Our asteroid 266983 (2010 WE66) is named Josepbosch in honor of my son Josep Bosch Olivera. Our asteroid 322390 (2011 QN42) is named Planes de Son
This site has discovered two NEA Aplollo class: 2009 ST19 and 2012 UT9 (see below).

                                          Asteroid NEO Apophis, January 12, 2013

Follow-up Astrometry
Follow-up astrometry and recoveries are made with the Advanced Coma-Free optical system like the Ritchey-Chrétien 16 inch f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain at Santa Maria de Montmagastrell Survey (IAU code B74). The  CCD has 24 micron pixels and a 21'x21' field. At the moment, the telescope pointing and dome control are computer controlled from the above control room.

Data Reduction
All data are reduced on a PC. Flat-fielding is done using MaxIm DL. The astrometry is done with both TheSky6 Astronomy Software and Herbert Raab's Astrometrica which has an excellent track and stack option. As Astrometrica also allows the simple identification of all objects in the field, this is currently the software of choice.
Following the release of UCAC-3, virtually all of our astrometry is done using this. An astrometric accuracy in the fit of 0".0 – 0”.5 RMS in each coordinate is obtained for several hundred stars within the field. For high S/N targets, the absolute accuracy of the astrometry is of about the same magnitude; the absolute accuracy of UCAC-3 being smaller than this. 

Discoveries on January: Main-belt asteroids 2013 AZ19 - 2013 AE27 - 2013 AF27 - 2013 AG27 - 2013 AT31 - 2013 AU31 -2013 AV31 - 2013 AW31 - 3013 AY59 - 2013 AZ59 - 2013 AA60 - 2013 AA64 - 2013 AB64 - 2013 AF64 - 2013 AE64 - 2013 AR64 - 2012 AM72 - 2013 AA77 - 2013 BV69 .

Discoveries on February: 2013 CH126 - 2013 CK176 - 2013 CZ208

Discoveries on March: 2013 FR12

Discoveries on April:  2013 GL1 (Outer Main-belt)- 2013 GD12 - 2013 GM34 - 2013 GN34 - 2013 HF1 (Outer Main-belt) - 2013 HG1

Discoveries on May:  2013 JU21 - 2013 JV21 - 2013 JO26

My first discoveries, in 2009

Asteroid 2009 YW6 (333744)

The Minor Planet Center (MPC) has assigned on December 21, 2009 a new discovery. The asteroid 2009 YW6 (333744) was discovered in images taken on December 20 and confirmed by Antonio Garrigós (MPC B37) and the author in new observations the night after. I will ask for the asteroid 333744 the name Jan in honor of my grandson Jan Bosch Pellicer, born in 2010. 

                       Jan Bosch Pellicer
                               Learning to ski

Image of discovery. Note that the asteroid is on the edge of the field

Discovery of the Apollo PHA asteroid 2009 ST19

This minor planet, belonging to the Apollo class, is also flagged as a "Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA)", an object that, because of its orbital parameters, might represent a possible threat of impact for planet Earth (http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/neo/pha.html).

It has beeen discovered by the Spanish amateur astronomer Josep M. Bosch from Santa Maria de Montmagastrell (MPC B74) on 2009, Sept. 16.2, ay magnitude about 17. At that time it was posted on the NEOCP webpage of the Minor Planet Center as "jmbo11"; after a couple of days it was withdrawn, because it was not confirmed by any further observations.
On 2009, Sept. 22, the LINEAR sky survey picked-up a fast moving object, that was posted in the NEO-Cp as "BQ24981". After some follow-up observations from various sites, on 2009 Sept. 23 the MPC published M.P.E.C. 2009-S72 (http://tinyurl.com/yer5xmr), informing that the two objects mentioned before were actually the same celestial body.
According to the NEODyS webpage this object. about 1.5 Km in diameter, made a close pass to Earth on 1980, Oct. 4, at a minimum possible distance of about 0.009 AU (nominal distance of about 0.04 AU).

Diagram by Berndhard Häusler

Observatory Santa Maria On September 23th, at 10:00 pm. I went on a motorcycle to my observatory, located in a small village of 60 inhabitants called Santa Maria de Montmagastrell, 8 km far from my house. As I walked out of the fuel station, my mobile phone started to rang. At the time, I stopped the bike and went back to the side of the road, the phone stopped calling. Upon arrival at the observatory, the call repeated while preparing the telescope for another observation night. This time, I can answer the call phone. It was Gustavo Muller to communicate that they had just numbering the possible NEO I saw in some pictures taken last September 16. That past day, I had gotten up at three in the morning and, among other objectives, Comet 137p looked to no avail. Well, the comet was not in the 14 pictures I took of the field and so I went to other objectives that had to watch. At dawn, with the first light was fading I control systems and the telescope placed in sleep mode to close the observatory and go to bed to rest. At that time, I reviewed the images of the comet 137p field by the custom of not leaving any possibility loose. I started the blink of images and in less than a second I realized that there in the fourteen shots 70 seconds each moving something big. I checked that was not a known object, and then I sent four astrometric measurements to the MPC. Hours passed, spent six days, and when he had lost hope of recovering the object the MPC announced it had been found by various observatories, including the LINEAR and gave the 2009 provisional number ST19. I thought I had lost, although the night I had a discovery following email exchange with Tim Spahr of the MPC, who assured me find it. And they've found!

Richard Miles said:

Yes, Special congratulations, José María. This is a very special object. It breaks the record in terms of the closest pass by an object of this size, about 1 km across! 

We currently know of no object larger than this to have come closer than this object has recently. The next largest such object was the famous (69230) Hermes (H=17.5), which approached to 0.0050 AU of the Earth in 1937! Your PHA, 2009 ST19 will be visible during the next few weeks and so will be a good target for photometry.
Richard Miles
Asteroids and Remote Planets Section
British Astronomical Association

Orbit diagram update: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2009%20ST19;orb=1

I dedicate this discovery to the Departament d'Educació de la Generalitat de Catalunya and the educational community of Catalonia, to which I belong.

The best image of Asteroid Apollo 2009 ST19 by the discoverer on September 26, 2009

2009 ST19 in NEODyS

http://newton.dm.unipi.it/neodys/index.php?pc=1.1.0&n=2009ST19
http://newton.dm.unipi.it/neodys/index.php?pc=1.1.4.0&n=2009ST19
Number of crossings per revolution
                Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn
Crossings    0        4       4       0        0
Close approaches from 1950 to 2100
Planet     Date                Min possible distance
EARTH 1980/07/13.15029 0.0097665
EARTH 2009/08/31.09278 0.0647428
EARTH 2038/09/22.26839 0.0104962
EARTH 2067/09/01.69748 0.0124637

List of Apollos:
http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/lists/Apollos.html
News:
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_ST19
http://http//www.cfa.harvard.edu/mpec/K09/K09S72.html
http://www.elperiodico.com/default.asp?idpublicacio_PK=46&idioma=CAS&idnoticia_PK=647992&idseccio_PK=1477
http://www.xtec.net/cda-montsec/index9.htm

Observations for all Near Earth Asteroids
Observations and residuals
NEODyS provides informationnd services for all Near Earth Asteroids from B74
http://newton.dm.unipi.it/neodys/index.php?pc=2.1.2&o=B74&ab=0
The NEO Confirmation Page
http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/NEO/ToConfirm.html

Test images

Sombrero Galaxy, March 15, 2012

Antenae, March 14, 2012

Horse nebula, January 4, 2012





Globular cluster Herschel H218-1, January, 4  2012

 

M1, january, 4  2012

Galaxy M33. Image on December 12, 2011

Planetary nebula M27. Image on December 12, 2011

NGC 6960, part of Veil Nebula. Images on September, 4  2011

Veil Nebula NGC 6992 & 6995. Images on June, 22  2012 by Pere Horts

Planetary Nebula NGC 6772 on June, 24 2012

Observatory Santa Maria de Montmagastrell

Aerial view. Joan Guarro image














Main telescope

Secondary telescope (newton 31 cm f/4.9) (For sale)

Transit of Venus across the face of the Sun as Venus passed between the sun and Earth, September 8, 2004

M13  Image taken with the Newton telescope 31 cm diameter at f/5



M13   Image taken with the new telescope of 40 cm diameter (16") at f/10. Note that the stars are much more detailed and the resolution is much higher than f/6.3

Image of M15 and Planetary nebulae Pease 1 with telescope 16" at f/10.

Telescopes:
a) 0.31-m f/4.9 Newtonian reflector

b) Meade advanced Ritchey-Chrétien 0.40-m f/10. Focal reducer at 6.3

CCD: SBIG ST9E and SBIG STL 1001E 

Location: 41° 43' 12.54" N 1° 06' 19.27" E

Height above sea level 331 meters

B74-Santa Maria de Montmagastrell
Distance from rotation axis 0.747550 Earth radii
Height above equatorial plane +0.662053 Earth radii

Observations by observatory

http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/special/CountObsByYear.txt

See also: http://asteroids-and-comets.blogspot.com/

TheBestLinks

Josep M. Bosch

Video from the Channel 33 of Televisió de Catalunya in which I appear (minutes 26 to 33) to accompany the professor Juan Antonio Belmonte, archaeoastrophysicist at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC). Release on May 24, 2010
http://www.tv3.cat/videos/2920590

Ski station Portainé

With the Bororo women in Niger

My preferred reading is the medieval catalan literature           For example:

Book chapter 305 from the Llibre dels feits de Jaume I

E, en aquell temps que nós estàvem a Montpesller, venc-nos aquí lo comte de Tolosa, e el comte de Proença, e haguem grans corts d'hòmens honrats d'aquelles terres que ens venien veer. E açò fo un any aprés la presó de València. E entram en Montpesller el dijous: e el divendres, entre mig jorn e hora nona, fo eclipsis major que anc hom vis de memòria d'aquells hòmens que ara són, car tot lo Sol cobrí la Lluna, e podia hom veer bé set esteles en lo cel. E, ab aitant, quan nós haguem bé feites nostres fazendes en Montpesller, a bé e honrament de nós, faem armar lo bus de Montpesller qui era de vuitanta rems e venguem-nos en tro a Cotlliure; e per terra venguem-nos puis a València.

Author: king Jaume I d'Aragó

Light Pollution

Lleida under the light pollution. Image of José Manuel Pérez

Josep M. Bosch is a founding member of Cel Fosc Association Light Pollution (http://www.celfosc.org/) and is currently on the staff manager of the entity.












Cel Fosc is a statewide association that studies the phenomenon of light pollution and coordinate actions to reduce their impact on the natural environment. Also to optimize energy resources applied to lighting at night, both public and private. http://www.celfosc.org/
To contact the Cel Fosc association: celfosc@ya.com

Contact: jbosch1@xtec.cat

Links
http://astrosurf.com/cometas-obs/ http://teobaldopower.org/cometas-obs/foro/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=169

http://www.observadores-cometas.com/
http://www.observadores-cometas.com/neos/PHA/pha_2009_st19.htm
http://www.liada.net/index.htm
http://sites.google.com/site/rastreadoresdecometas/astrometria
http://sites.google.com/site/rastreadoresdecometas/observables
http://www.observadores-cometas.com/ASTEROIDES/spanish_asteroid_discoveries.htm
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