How to look up an NEO or Asteroid
Ive always Blinked my images after a night or several nights of imaging in the hopes Ill find an Asteroid or NEO moving across the screen. Some are bright objects and some are very dim. I finally found one in my images.
See below on how to locate ones you find.
So if you find something similar in your images how can you check to see what it is.
You first want to go to the following website: NEO Checker
Next you will need to acquire some information from your images fits header. Many capturing or processing softwares have options to look at the images Fits Header.
The FITS Header includes all of the data related to your image such as the RA and Dec of the object, Location, Time, Exposure lengths, Etc.
What you will need is the date, Universal Time, RA and Dec. Now make sure your RA and Dec are the objects and not the center of the image. The format should look like this 13 37 01.844
The time you will also enter the corresponding number '2022-03-06T08:05:12.445 from your FITS HEADER.
Once you have that information go back to the Minor Planet form Click produce list.
This should generate the information on your object
If your object is not listed then you will need to get the astrometry of your object. You can then enter that into the MPC checker under Observations. If that doesnt populate the object then submit your observations to IAU for a possible discovery
Clear Skies and keep Hunting.
Astrometry Programs:
