Planetary Society Hangout Jan 24th - Asteroid Hunting with Gary Hug

Gary Hug is an asteroid hunter. He scans the skies every night looking for new near-Earth objects and refining orbital measurements for existing ones. He is also one of the Planetary Society's Gene Shoemaker Fellows, which is our program to provide highly-skilled amateur astronomers with the equipment and support needed to continue the search for potentially hazardous asteroids.

Join Casey Dreier and Dr. Bruce Betts, who manages the Shoemaker program, as they talk to Gary Hug about how he hunts the night skies, the new NEO he discovered in January, and what drives him.

• Category

  Science & Technology

[httprover]

A classic reference on orbit determination is Gauss' Theory of the Motion of the Heavenly Bodies Moving About the Sun in Conic Sections which is available through Dover Publications. He computed the orbital elements for Juno, Pallas and Ceres which were newly discovered at the time and developed the Method of Least Squares for orbit determination based on a number of observations. This method made GPS possible.

[Jens Toft]

What a nice home observatory! I like the sliding roof!

[Richard Fredrick]

You mentioned Astrometrica. What did you use prior to that and didn't that program make a huge difference in an evenings production?

[gayphishs]

Important stuff your doing here guys!