9929 McConnell
9929 McConnell is a main belt asteroid. It orbits the Sun once every 3.43 years.[2]
Discovered on February 24, 1982 by the Oak Ridge Observatory, this asteroid was given the provisional designation "1982 DP1". It was later renamed "McConnell" after John C. McConnell, a historian of astronomy.[3]
John C. McConnell FRAS, who was born in 1946, comes from Maghaberry, Northern Ireland, and is well known among both professional and amateur astronomers, takes a particular interest in observational astronomy and astrophotography, and also in the history of Irish astronomy, where he has amassed a vast collection of material. In 1999 he was awarded the Aidan P Fitzgerald Memorial Medal of the Irish Astronomical Association.
The asteroid, (9929) McConnell, was discovered in 1982 at the Oak Ridge Observatory, in Harvard, Massachusetts, which was operated by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics where Armagh Observatory's former Director Dr. Eric Mervyn Lindsay (1907-1974) spent a number of years working for his Ph.D. more than 70 years ago. The minor planet is very faint, being only 5 miles across and currently lying more than 130 million miles away from the Earth in the constellation of Leo. It has a nearly circular orbit passing close to the inner edge of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
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