is at opposition today.
I’ve realized this only belatedly. I had been meaning to plot a picture for the asteroid named in honor of Deborah Byrd, founder and editor-in-chief of the astronomy website EarthSky.org; and – today – I set about finding orbital elements for it, and testing accuracy by calculating its phenomena in 2023. And found that it was nearest to Earth yesterday (1.68 AU, astronomical units or Sun-Earth distances) and, today, is at opposition in longitude, and brightest: a dim magnitude 15.6, far below the naked-eye limit of 5 or 6.
This picture shows a sphere of space 3 AU in radius, with the paths of a few moving bodies in 2023, and the sight-line from Earth to the asteroid on Oct. 23. Stalks to the ecliptic plane are at 1-month intervals. The dashed line is the vernal equinox direction.
This asteroid is about 15 kilometers wide. It was discovered on 1983 Jan. 9 by Brian Skiff at the Anderson Mesa station of Lowell Observatory in Arizona.
3505 Byrd is at about right ascension 1h29m, declination +24°55′, in Pisces. Excuse me from working up a chart for it; it’s too dim for you to find, and it’s after bedtime here.
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Having an asteroid named after D. Byrd is nice. Well deserved: Earth & Sky is great!
Did a little research. There have been 1,300,000 minor planets observed, 620.000 numbered, and 24, 000 named.
Deborah’s would be the 3,505th named minor planet.
I am so proud to say that I have known Debbie for over 40 years, and observing her efforts over the decades at educating people about science, and how to love the night sky and nature, has just been an inspiration and joy.