Notes on parallax measurements to asteroids

Michael Richmond
March 4, 2003

• Lee Smallwood and Debora Katz (of the US Naval Academy) and I have written a paper which describes how one can measure the parallax of asteroids which pass close to the Earth. You can download a PDF copy of the paper.

• I wrote up a brief account of our experience observing the asteroid 2002 NY40.

• We also attempted to detect the parallax of asteroid 2000 QW7.

• I was part of a group which is currently (March 2005) analyzing measurements of asteroid 1998WT from Yerkes and Gettysburg

• Other people have detected parallax, too. For example, you can read about the
  • Joint Observation of Asteroid 2000 GD2 from Munich and Verona
  • Measurements of 1999BJ8 from Florida and Kansas (beware the pop-up ad, and go down to the bottom of the page)

• If you want to work out all the geometry yourself, it might help to glance at some pictures showing the quantities involved in the experiment.

• The CLEA Project includes an exercise in which students measure the parallax of an asteroid. It also includes a very handy set of tools for doing these measurements yourself.

• For a different aspect of parallax, look at these pictures of asteroid trails taken by the Hubble Space Telescope:
  • Mapping the Motion of Asteroids
  • The Hickson Compact Group 87 Asteroid Story by Matt McMaster