Red Barn Observatory MPC-H68

Information

Astrometry:

Why is astrometry needed to be gathered on Minor Planets?  Primarily to determine where they are going (or have been).  Astrometry is basically a set of measurements taken over a period of time of a Minor Planet, then these measurements are combined to allow us to determine an "orbit" of the Minor Planet.

Photometry:

Minor Planet Photometry is basically defined as measuring the "lightcurve" of the Minor Planet.  As the light is reflected from the Minor Planet back to us here on Earth, we can measure this light and convert these measurements into a graph to show us the variation of the magnitude (or reflected light) of the object.  This information is then used to determine the rotational period of the object, and can also be used to detect binary-systems as well as generate a 3D model of the object.