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•  Asteroid made close approach 20171

•  Magnitude between V= 13.6-14.8 during time of observation4

•  Florence is known to have two moons1

•  Known period: 2.3580 +/- 0.0002 hours6

3122Florence

HarvardObservingProject(HOP)

•  Images were calibrated using Maxim DL

•  Astrometry.net was used to determine the World Coordinate System (WCS) of each image

•  AstroImageJ was used to perform multi-aperture photometry

•  The gastpy python package used to create a Lomb-Scargle periodogram and determine period

•  Uncertainties were determined by fitting a Gaussian to Figure 4

DataReductions/Analysis

•  Measured period for Florence of 2.25 +/- 0.25 hours

•  Our measured period agrees with literature within our error bars

FlorenceResults

2776Baikal

AsteroidRotationalCurves•  Measures the variation of light reflected off

the asteroid •  Can reveal information about physical

characteristics (i.e. shape) •  Can help us understand asteroid rotation

•  Used measurements from asteroid 3122 Florence to develop a method for finding asteroid rotational periods

•  Applied method to Baikal, an asteroid with an unknown period

References1. Benner L., et al. (2017). Radar Reveals Two Moons Orbiting Asteroid Florence. Retrieved from NASA.2. Collins K. A., et al. (2017). AstroImageJ: Image Processing and Photometric Extraction for Ultra-Precise Astronomical Light Curves. The Astronomical Journal, 153 (2), pp. 13.3. Diffraction Limited, Cyanogen Imaging ® Maxim DL. (1997). 4. Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Minor Planet Center.5. VanderPlas, J. T., Zelijko, I. (2015). Periodograms for Multiband Astronomical Time Series. The Astrophysical Journal, 812 (1), pp. 18. 6. Warner B. D. (2016). Near-Earth Asteroid Lightcurve Analysis at CS3-Palmer Divide Station: 2016 January-April. The Minor Planet Bulletin, 43 (3). pp. 240-250.

•  Initiative that allows undergraduates to take part in astronomical data collection and learn about observational astronomy

•  Uses Harvard’s 16-inch DFM

Clay Telescope with 13’ FOV and an Apogee Alta U47 imaging CCD

NatashaS.Abrams,AllysonBieryla,SebastianGomez,JaneHuang,JohnLewis,ZoeTodd,MunazzaK.Alam,TheronCarmichael,LehmanH.Garrison,IanWeaver,ChenChen,ChimaMcGruder,AmberMedina

Developingmethodsofdeterminingunknownrotationalperiodsofasteroidsviaobservationsof(3122)FlorencebytheHarvardObservingProject

Figure 3. Normalized Relative Flux vs Time of the continuous data sets

Figure 4. Lomb-Scargle periodogram shows the best period at 2.25 +/- 0.25 hours

Figure 5. Light curve of Florence phase folded at the best period

Figure 1. Harvard Clay Telescope

Figure 6. Light curve of Baikal produced by AstroImageJ with data from KeplerCam in i-band

Figure 2. Florence (circled in red) at three R-band Clay images different times on UT2017.1202.

Figure 7. Light curve of Baikal produced by AstroImageJ with data from Harvard Clay Telescope in R-band

•  Harvard Clay Telescope took 7 multi-hour time series observations of Florence in the R-band from UT 2017.1002 – 2017.1201

•  3 nights had poor weather conditions and were not used

•  4 multi-hour time series observations of Baikal taken by the Clay Telescope in R-band UT 2018.0213 – 2018.0327

•  Observation of Baikal taken in i-band with 48-inch Fred L Whipple Observatory (FLWO) KeplerCam (23’ FOV) UT 2017.0226

•  Magnitude between V= 14.6-15.7 during time of observation4

DataCollection

•  Collect more data, perhaps of a different target

•  Use a larger telescope to detect variation

FutureWork

•  Unable to determine the period of Baikal due to too shallow variations, or perhaps too long a period •  Observations from the Clay Telescope of Baikal were an order of magnitude more scattered than those

measured with KeplerCam

BaikalResults