Confirming the 3-dimensional shape of Asteroid 283 Emma from Observations at Pine Mountain Observatory

Project files are comprised of 1 page pdf and presentation recording in mp4 format.To determine the shape of asteroid 283 Emma, we obtained time-resolved photometry of the asteroid on August 28, 2019 from 07:44:24 to 09:27:39 UTC at Pine Mountain Observatory (PMO). The observations were carried out using the 0.35m Robbins telescope and a large format CCD camera with a Sloan g filter. The brightness of 283 Emma was calibrated using three standard stars removing the influence of airmass. We found that the brightness changed from mg = 12.5 to 12.8. The light curve (time variation of the brightness) we obtained was consistent with the previous research which determined that the shape of 283 Emma is an ellipsoid. Through the process of data analysis, information on the atmospheric extinction coefficient in the Sloan g-band at the PMO was also obtained, which is useful for other observations at the observatory. The results of our observations give us confidence that we can obtain research-grade data with PMO and that this data can be analyzed by undergraduate students.Pine Mountain Observator