The Northolt Branch Observatories (NBO;

Observatory code This is a list of observatory codes (IAU codes or MPC codes) published by the Minor Planet Center. For a detailed description, ''see observations of small Solar System bodies Observations of minor planets as well as comets and natural satellites ...

Z80 The Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor introduced by Zilog as the startup company's first product. The Z80 was conceived by Federico Faggin in late 1974 and developed by him and his 11 employees starting in early 1975. The first working samples were ...

, Z48 and Z37) is an

astronomical observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysical, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. His ...

located in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, England. NBO collects follow-up

astrometry Astrometry is a branch of astronomy that involves precise measurements of the positions and movements of stars and other celestial bodies. It provides the kinematics and physical origin of the Solar System and this galaxy, the Milky Way. His ...

near-Earth asteroids A near-Earth object (NEO) is any small Solar System body whose orbit brings it into proximity with Earth. By convention, a Solar System body is a NEO if its closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) is less than 1.3 astronomical units (AU). ...

and other small Solar System objects. It focuses on

public outreach Outreach is the activity of providing services to any population that might not otherwise have access to those services. A key component of outreach is that the group providing it is not stationary, but mobile; in other words, it involves meetin ...

, sharing images, videos and information about asteroids on

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

. The two

main belt The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, called ...

asteroids

72834 Guywells 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion, mythology, s ...

and 128345 Danielbamberger are named after members of the Northolt Branch Observatories team.

History

Northolt Branch Observatories was founded in 2015, as an extension of the London-based ''Northolt Branch Astro'' group of local amateur astrophotographers. It is a British-German collaboration: Data is collected on-site by observers at the telescopes in England, and then processed remotely from Germany.

Activities

Northolt Branch Observatories is an educational outreach partner with NEOShield-2. It works closely with

Asteroid Day __NOTOC__ Asteroid Day (also known as International Asteroid Day) is an annual global event which is held on June 30, the anniversary of the Tunguska event in 1908 when a meteor air burst levelled about of forest in Siberia, Russia. Asteroid ...

and the PACA (Pro-Am Collaborative Astronomy) Project, with the goal to raise awareness about asteroids. In 2016 and 2017, NBO hosted the International Capture The Asteroid imaging contest, in partnership with NEOShield-2. The annual competition is targeted particularly at amateur astrophotographers, who rarely choose to image asteroids in favour of

planets A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a young ...

deep-sky object A deep-sky object (DSO) is any astronomical object that is not an individual star or Solar System object (such as Sun, Moon, planet, comet, etc.). The classification is used for the most part by amateur astronomers to denote visually observed fa ...

s. In addition to observing Near-Earth asteroids, NBO also provides

supernova A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when ...

confirmation and long-term follow up of

comets A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are ...

as part of PACA observing campaigns. Examples of PACA campaigns with contributions from NBO include Rosetta's comet

67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (abbreviated as 67P or 67P/C–G) is a Jupiter-family comet, originally from the Kuiper belt, with a current orbital period of 6.45 years, a rotation period of approximately 12.4 hours and a maximum velocity of . Chu ...

, and the comets

41P/Tuttle–Giacobini–Kresák 41P/Tuttle–Giacobini–Kresák is a periodic comet in the Solar System. The comet nucleus is estimated to be 1.4 kilometers in diameter. Discovered by Horace Parnell Tuttle on May 3, 1858, and re-discovered independently by Michel Giacobini ...

and

45P/Honda–Mrkos–Pajdušáková 45P/Honda–Mrkos–Pajdušáková is a short-period comet discovered by Minoru Honda December 3, 1948. It is named after Minoru Honda, Antonín Mrkos, and Ľudmila Pajdušáková. The object revolves around the Sun on an elliptical orbit with ...

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite web, url=https://www.facebook.com/pg/NBObservatories/about, title=Our Story: The Northolt Branch Observatories, website=facebook.com, access-date=March 1, 2018

External links

''Northolt Branch Observatories'' on Facebook

Twitter

''Astrophiz 23: Meet Asteroid Hunters Daniel Bamberger and Guy Wells''

''Astrophiz 50: Asteroid Hunters II''

''Comet Watch 2016/07/02: North Meets South'', Astronomy.fm podcast

''Comet Watch 2017/07/15: With Guest Jeff Tobak of Northolt Astro''

''Asteroid Orbit View'', web application by David Rankin (in collaboration with NBO)

''NEODyS'' observation log

''Northolt Branch Astro''

''The PACA Project''
Astronomical observatories in England