MINOR PLANET: (7194) SUSANROSE

Minor Planet 1993 SR3 —  Discovered 1993 Sept. 18 by H. E. Holt at Palomar. Redesignated 6/7/2009 by the IAU and MPC as: (7194) SUSANROSE DEDICATION: Susan Rose (b. 1952), of East Meadow, New York, is a tireless promoter of astronomy for families and neophytes. For 20 years she has served as the president of the Amateur Observers' Society of New York. In 2002 she received the Walter Scott Houston Award of the Northeast Region of the Astronomical League.

The first "recovery" image of SUSANROSE (July 4, 2009 UT; right) following its naming by the IAU/MPC.
Left: A Palomar Observatory Sky Survey II R-band Plate Image (55 minute exposure taken on September 16, 1993, two days before the discovery of 1993 SR3) of the field in Opiuchus where SUSANROSE was first recovered  (right; RA = 17h 47m 12s, DEC = +02° 51' 03") on July 4, 2009. The blue line represents the predicted path of SUSANROSE on the night of 4 July 2009 UT from Pingelly, Australia (where the image on the right was taken) as determined from a JPL HORIZON's Ephemeris based upon orbital elements as entered in the JPL Small Body Database Browser (see below).  The expected position of SUSANROSE  at 16:52 UT (the time of the July 4, 2009 image) is indicated by the green arrow.  Epoch 1993: Nothing there.  Epoch 2009: There she is!  Shinning at visual magnitude +16. 1.  Click on either image to see at twice the image scale.


Click the "movie" icon to blink the pre-discovery and recovery images.

SUSANROSE on the move!

The combined orbital and topocentric Earth parallactic motion of SUSANROSE is apparent in only the 6.5 minutes recovery image (14.5" RC Optical Systems telescope with an SBIG ST-L-11K 3 CCD Camera).  Note the image of SUSANROSE is slightly trailed in predominantly the E/W direction (as expected; North is "up" in this frame) while the stellar images in the well-guided exposure are circular.

For all you have done for the AOS over these many years. May your celestial namesake be a beacon in perpituity for generations of amateur astronomers yet to come.