Over
the years, I have tried to image my namesake asteroid several
times, but each time was frustrated by
circumstances: the asteroid was far from Earth, it was deep in
the southern sky, or on the nights I shot the
images, the asteroid was close to bright star. This time I got
lucky! Asteroid 3684 was on the meridian
on an evening when the Moon was absent, and it was reasonably
high in the sky.
Asteroid 3684 Berry is a short trail just below the center of the frame.
At least three more asteroids are visible in this image, as well as one bright satellite trail.
Close-Up of Trail 3684 Berry (R = 17.9)
Also visible, 182703 2001 VD124 (R = 19.7)
Time of mid-exposure: 2009-12-09T03:37:00 UT.
These images taken with a QSI 532ws CCD camera, clear filter, on a Vixen R200SS+ParaCorr (200mm ƒ/4.6).
Exposure data: 101 exposures each of 60 seconds.
3684 Berry
is a main-belt asteroid nominally 12.7 kilometers diameter. As a
type C asteroid, it is
very dark (5% albedo). Its orbital period is 3.45965 Julian
years, the semimajor axis of
its orbit is 2.2874389 AU with an eccentricity of 0.1535513.
--Richard Berry
Return to Richard Berry's Home Page