Ate 111 identified

Sample CCD Image with unknown Object

CCD image Image Linked in TheSky

NOTE: The above CCD image pre-dates Image Link! The date of the CCD image is March 10 1994! After a night of imaging the Sombrero galaxy with an SBIG ST-6 and Celestron C-8 I knew something wasn't right when I looked closer at the image.  I had imaged the galaxy enough to know there wasn't a double star next to it! To bad Image Link didn't exist yet.

After inspecting any image of M104 I could find I knew this was an intruder.  A call to Mike Palermiti of Jupiter FL answered the question immediately.  He immediately said before thinking based on the declination of M104 it is an asteroid. Mike is that familiar with entire sky.  Yep he was right!  Too bad I didn't know that night!  I would have imaged the asteroid crossing the galaxy.

First we Image Link the CCD Image into TheSky display. This allows identification of all stars on the image, UCAC-2, Hipparcos-Tycho and USNO-B1 data.  The stars that correspond to the CCD imaged stars are the ones with the black holes in them.  Note there are several bright objects on the CCD Image that are not identified.