Society of Physics Students Symposium

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KBO Astrometry Using Small Telescopes

Astrophysics

French, Katheryn

CCD images of Makemake (2005 FY9), the second largest Kuiper Belt Object, were taken with a 14-inch telescope during the summer of 2008. The position of Makemake was found by comparing its position on the frames to UCAC2 stars in the frame. Observations were limited by the tracking capabilities of the telescopes and the airmass. It was found that the average right ascension offset from the ephemeris was 0.0134 arcseconds with a root mean square of 0.3394 and the average declination offset was -0.3855 arcseconds with an rms of 0.4634. It is possible to do KBO astrometry with small telescopes, however several hundred frames are required to equal the quality of observations on larger telescopes.