Great Shefford Observatory Minor Planet Discovery Circumstances

As of April 2024 the number of minor planets officially credited with being discovered from Great Shefford is 110, see the list of numbered objects below.

On 19 October 2010 the Minor Planet Center published an Editorial Notice announcing a change to the way discovery credit is assigned to new discoveries.

The new rules make it more difficult for amateurs to be credited with new discoveries and also more difficult to predict which objects that are initially picked up as potentially new objects will eventually result in discovery credit being assigned to the observer.

The new rules can seem confusing at first and an article attempting to describe them can be found here.

Potential new minor planets picked up from Great Shefford are now separated into several different lists, depending on their status:

The list of non-principal designations no longer has any relevance with the introduction of the new discovery rules and will no longer be rigorously maintained.

In the list below, the first column (Disc. Seq.) gives a running tally of numbered objects together with the sequence in which the objects were first picked up, e.g. 1/6 for (128465) 2004 OJ9 indicates it was the first minor planet to receive a permanent number, but was the 6th to be discovered from Great Shefford.

1. V Magnitudes for discovery dates are from the MPC's Minor Planet Ephemeris Service

Summary of Numbered Minor Planet discovery circumstances:

Circumstance	Number
In field of Comet	3
In field of NEO Confirmation Page object	34
In field of NEO	29
In field of non-main belt (unusual) object	2
In field during follow-up of Great Shefford discovery	37
In field during follow-up of discovery for other stations	5

Possible candidates for discovery credit (new rules)

Provisional designations with single-opposition orbits as of 19 Oct 2010, or minor planets that have been submitted to the Minor Planet Center (MPC) as potentially new discoveries since 19 Oct 2010. All these objects are subject to the new rules as published by the MPC in the Editorial Notice in MPEC 2010-U20.

Discovery credit for these objects will only get assigned to Great Shefford if the earliest submitted observations used in the orbital computation at the time of numbering are attributable to Great Shefford.

As at 03 January 2020, objects marked in green appear to be favourable, though it is quite likely that earlier observations from other observatories will eventually be identified when further (newer) observations come to light, extending the orbital arc. In that case, discovery credit would then be assigned to the observatory that first submitted positions used in the final orbit.

Objects marked in red are very unlikely to result in discovery credit being assigned to Great Shefford, with observations from other observatories from earlier dates already being available. However, for a few (generally marked with a ?) there is a small chance that discovery credit could be assigned to Great Shefford (if the Great Shefford observations were submitted to the MPC earlier than other observatories). Until the objects are finally numbered this will not be known for sure.

Non-principal designations

The following minor planets were discovered at Great Shefford, given a provisional designation by the Minor Planet Center, but later identified with observations from a different apparition or earlier in the same apparition and discovery credit given to those observations:

	Designation / Principal Designation	Discovery Date	Mag.(1)	Circumstances
1	2004 VM64 / 2007 HG7 / (266437)	2004 Nov 12	+19.7	In field of NEOCP object (2004 VB61). Only observed on two nights in 2004, then rediscovered by Catalina Sky Survey in April 2007.
2	2005 US3 / 2001 QD252 / (230166)	2005 Oct 22	+19.3	In field of NEOCP object (Comet P/2005 U1 Read)
3	2006 EN / 2011 EF63 / (281914)	2006 Mar 01	+21.2	In field of NEO 2006 CT9. 31 day arc in 2006 was superseded by linkages made from observations in 2011.
4	2006 FE35/ 2002 GH85 / (307220)	2006 Mar 23	+19.3	In field of MBA discovery 2006 EQ
5	2006 UT215 / 2002 SO32 / (427548)	2006 Oct 26	+20.0	In field of MBA 2006 UV62 (station 715 discovery by David Dixon).
6	2007 GA / 2004 TN200 / (318331)	2007 Apr 04	+20.6	In field of MBA discovery 2007 EA183. 28 hours after discovery 2007 GA passed 27" south of 2007 EA183.
7	2007 XR16 / 2000 CH96 / (182043)	2007 Dec 10	+19.4	In field of NEO 2007 XB10
8	2007 XW16 / 2003 AG20 / (350957)	2007 Dec 11	+19.8	In field of NEO 2007 XJ16
9	2008 DR / 2003 FP78 / (350983)	2008 Feb 25	+19.4	In field of NEO 2008 CR118
10	2008 GD3 / 2010 VE106 / (411397)	2008 Apr 05	+20.8	In field of NEOCP object 2008 GF2
11	2008 QE20 / 2005 XQ3 / (280899)	2008 Aug 30	+18.6	In field of MBA discovery 2005 WR57. 3-sigma uncertainty of 2005 XQ3 at time of re-discovery: 10.8°.
12	2008 SE83 / 2002 SU1 / (270818)	2008 Sep 27	+19.7	In field of NEOCP object 2008 SB85
13	2009 DF47 / 2006 JK48 / (261908)	2009 Feb 21	+20.0	In field of MBA discovery 2009 CL6.
14	2009 FK1 / 2007 RA71 / (304856)	2009 Mar 16	+20.9	In field of MBA discovery 2009 EL2. Only observed on two nights in 2009 from Great Shefford.
15	2005 UR3 / (323940)	2005 Oct 25	+19.9	In field of NEOCP object 2005 UU3.
16	2010 PJ66 / (359499)	2010 Aug 10	+20.3	In field of NEOCP object 2010 PD57.
17	2010 PQ74 / 2006 SD390 / (450619)	2010 Aug 11	+20.0	In a search field for a ONS object (GSA4A, which was not recovered) which itself had been found in the field of NEO 2010 PQ2. 2010 PQ74 was about 3° from the predicted position of 2006 SD390 when re-discovered.
18	2013 AB / 2005 AA58 / (366257)	2013 Jan 01	+19.9	In field of NEOCP object 2013 AU.
19	2012 TM146 / (384958)	2012 Oct 14	+20.5	In field of NEOCP object 2012 TD140
20	2008 UF3 / (394874)	2008 Oct 22	+19.4	In field of NEOCP object 2008 UE1, which was only dimly recorded and measurements were not submitted to the Minor Planet Center.
21	2009 AL2 / (394973)	2009 Jan 06	+20.6	In field of MBA discovery 2009 AN1.
22	2006 GZ1 / (417365)	2006 Apr 03	+20.2	In search area trying to recover MBA discovery 2004 VD70
23	2012 JK3 / (426171)	2012 May 12	+19.9	In field of NEOCP object 2012 JN4
24	2006 WU129 / (424014)	2006 Nov 25	+20.9	In field of MBA discovery 2006 VP1
25	2007 VC188 / (428489)	2007 Nov 11	+20.6	In field of NEOCP object 2007 VE184
26	2015 TO23 / 2014 KA32	2015 Oct 08	+20.6	In field of NEO 2015 TL
27	2005 UB7 = 2009 SD123 (457842)	2005 Oct 25	+20.6	In field of NEOCP object (2005 UU3)
28	2012 FT1 / (466127)	2012 Mar 17	+20.4	In field of NEOCP object 2012 FD1
29	2012 FU1 / 460360)	2012 Mar 17	+20.8	In field of NEOCP object 2012 FD1
30	2012 TM146 / (384958)	2012 Oct 14	+20.5	In field of NEOCP object 2012 TD140
31	2008 SB83/ (465454)	2008 Sep 26	+20.4	In field of NEOCP object 2008 SH82
32	2008 GB2 = 2012 CD23 = 2005 QC101 = 2008 HZ70	2008 Apr 05	+20.4	In field of NEOCP object 2008 GF2
33	2007 VU84 (476251)	2007 Nov 05	+20.1	In field of NEOCP object 2007 VJ8
34	2009 BC10 (477053)	2009 Jan 20	+19.5	In field of NEOCP object 2009 BV2.
35	2007 AN9 (481467)	2007 Jan 14	+19.2	In field of NEOCP object (2007 AE12). At mag +21.8, 2007 AE12 was too close to a field star to be detected.
36	2009 CB4 (481942)	2009 Feb 02	+20.6	In field of ex-NEOCP Mars-crossing object 2009 BF77. (See 2009 CA45)
37	2011 SQ232 (485502)	2011 Sep 30	+20.4	In field of NEOCP object 2011 SF191
38	2017 RK3 = 2015 FW230	2017 Sep 12	+20.1	In field of spacecraft OSIRIS REx (which was too faint to be recorded)
39	2007 RF133 = (498065)	2007 Sep 15	+19.9	In field of NEOCP object Comet C/2007 R3 (Gibbs)
40	2006 EJ1 = 2015 BO16 = 2010 EV16 = 2013 RY69 = 2015 BO16 = (502127)	2006 Mar 05	+20.4	In field of NEOCP object (2006 EY)
41	2005 SS19 = (509035)	2005 Sep 23	+20.3	In field of NEOCP object (5S017C4, which turned out not to be a minor planet, but the slow moving artificial satellite WMAP positioned at the Earths L2 Lagrange Point)
42	2006 VP1 = (509279)	2006 Nov 01	+19.4	In field of NEOCP object (2006 VA)
43	2016 VZ11 = (512855)	2016 Nov 07	+20.9	In field of NEOCP object 2016 VL2
44	2018 DJ3 = 2013 YH82	2018 Feb 22	+19.8	In field of NEOCP object 2018 DM
45	2012 XM2 = (513762)	2012 Dec 03	+18.7	In field of NEOCP object 2012 XH
46	2016 VU6 = (516265)	2016 Nov 05	+20.4	In field of NEOCP object 2016 VR1
47	2012 TN146 = (531500)	2012 Oct 14	+20.4	In field of NEOCP object 2012 TT145
48	2012 HB12 = (590607)	2012 Apr 20	+19.9	In field of NEOCP object 2012 HK2
49	2006 XY4 = (611518)	2006 Dec 12	+20.8	In field of NEO object (2006 XW)
50	2007 YL2 = (646021)	2007 Dec 16	+20.1	In field of MBA discovery 2007 XS16
51	2009 TQ2 = (648395)	2009 Oct 12	+20.0	In field of MBA discovery 2007 HB5.
52	2010 TO5 = (648955)	2010 Oct 01	+19.3	In field of NEOCP object 2003 SZ84 = 2010 TA.
53	2017 GE7 = (658096)	2017 Apr 04	+19.3	In field of NEOCP object 2017 GQ5 = 2010 JY209
54	2009 AJ2 = 2015 TO162 = 2015 OK69 = 2012 XT129 = (665141)	2009 Jan 06	+20.5	In field of MBA discovery 2009 AN1.