Presenter(s): Maggie Thompson—Physics
Faculty Mentor(s): Scott Fisher
Session: Prerecorded Poster Presentation
To determine the shape of asteroid 283 Emma, we obtained time-resolved photometry of the asteroid on August 28, 2019 from 07:44:24 to 09:27:39 UTC at Pine Mountain Observatory (PMO) . The observations were carried out using the 0 .35m Robbins telescope and a large format CCD camera with a Sloan g filter . The brightness of 283 Emma was calibrated using three standard stars removing the influence of airmass . We found that the brightness changed from mag(g) = 12 .5 to 12 .8 . The light curve (time variation of the brightness) we obtained was consistent with the previous research which determined that the shape of 283 Emma is an ellipsoid . Through the process of data analysis, information on the atmospheric extinction coefficient in the Sloan g-band at the PMO was also obtained, which is useful for other observations at the observatory . The results of our observations give us confidence that we can obtain research-grade data with PMO and that this data can be analyzed by undergraduate students .