Kin Endate

Kin Endate (ๅ††้คจ ้‡‘ Endate Kin?, born December 15, 1960) is a Japanese amateur astronomer who has discovered 600 asteroids (571 with Kazuro Watanabe and 29 separately [1]), placing him among the most prolific discoverers of minor planets. His discoveries include the Trojan asteroid (5648) 1990 VU1 and the Mars-crossing asteroid 6500 Kodaira. He also recorded the first known precovery images of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with his private 10-inch (25 cm) diameter telescope on March 15, 1993, 10 days before the official discovery of the comet. (Kin, who was looking specifically for asteroids, did not know of the comet in his images until after the official discovery.) [2][3]

Two asteroids have been named in his honor: 4282 Endate after him,[4] and 4460 Bihoro after the city in which he lives.[5][6]

He was born in Iwaizumi in Iwate Prefecture and went to Hokkaido Designers School to study photography. He began taking astrophotos in high school, but did not begin serious asteroid observations until 1986.[4][7]

See also

Asteroids discovered by Endate (incomplete)

References

  1. ^ IAU Minor Planet Center. Minor Planet Discoverers 14 Aug. 2011
  2. ^ Spencer, John Robert and Mitton, Jacqueline. The Great Comet Crash. Cambridge University Press, 1995. P. 13-14
  3. ^ D/1993 F2 Shoemaker-Levy 9 Cometography. Retrieved 16 Jan 2010.
  4. ^ a b Minor Planet Circular 16593(PDF) IAU Minor Planet Center. 8 June 1990.
  5. ^ Minor Planet Circular 16595(PDF) IAU Minor Planet Center. 8 June 1990.
  6. ^ Schmadel, Lutz D. and International Astronomical Union. Dictionary of Minor Planet Names. Springer, 2002. P. 367, 383-4
  7. ^ Endate, Kin. The Monochromatic World