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October 20, 2013
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Seven asteroids in a very small CCD image taken at Table Mountain Observatory on March 26,
2003 with the 24-inch telescope by the author. 27745 is now the permanent designation for
1990 WS (its preliminary designation). The object was discovered in November 1990 by Eric Elst
at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. 2001 XX140 was discovered in New Mexico by the LINEAR
(Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research) program in December 2001. Its permanent designation
is now 125776. 2003 FK was a discovery by the author on March 22, 2003. When discovering
asteroids at Table Mountain, I gave temporary designations, with this one receiving TMO0105.
The TMO stands for the Table Mountain Obsevatory, and the 0105 indicates it was the 105th
asteroid discovered at Table Mountain. The four remaining newly discovered asteroids are
TMO0111, 112, 113, and 114, all found on March 26. TMO0111 was given a preliminary
designation of 2003 FB7, and has never been recovered. TMO0112 received a preliminary
designation of 2003 FA7, and later received its permanent designation of 253333. TMO0113
was given 2003 FZ6, and later a permanent designation of 306209. TMO0114 became 2003
FC7, and finally 211480. Preliminary and, later, permanent designations are assigned by the
Minor Planet Center (MPC) in Cambridge, MA. None of these seven asteroids have been given
names, although the discoverer has the option to name them.
NOTE: The stars in the image are slightly trailed, whereas the asteroids appear as points.
This is because the telescope was set to track the general asteroid motions. There is a
suspected eighth asteroid on the left center edge of the image.
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