Elinor Gates

Asteroid (2650) Elinor

Asteroid 2650 was discovered by M Wolf in Heidelberg on 14 March 1931.  It's original designation was 1931EG, but was named Elinor in my honor by Dr. Brian Marsden for the work I had done at the IAU Minor Planet Center in 1989.

On 8 Mar 1999 UT I took images of asteroid 2650 with the NIckel Telescope at Lick Observatory, using Dewar #5, with a plate scale of 0.56 arcsec/pixel, yielding a field of view of 4.4 arcminutes.  The field center is at approximately RA=07:48:29 Dec=+28:31:12 (J2000).  North is up and East is to the left in the images below.   The motion of the asteroid is clear in the sequence of images.

V-Band Image

5 minute exposure started at 4:47:51 UT

B-Band Image

5 minute exposure started at 5:08:08 UT

R-Band Image

5 minute exposure started at 5:19:09 UT, fog rolled in half way through exposure.

Physical Parameters

H = 11.1 magnitude (reference MPO265971) corresponds to a diameter between 13 and 30km.  Actual size depends on the albedo of the asteroid (usually somewhere between 0.05 and 0.25).   

Rotation period is 2.762 hours (reference Pligge et al. 2011 Minor Planet Bul. 38:137-138, Stephens 2011 Minor Planet Bul. 38:23-24).  

2650 Elinor is an S-type asteroid in the Main Belt and  member of the Eunomia group of asteroids (Nathues, Icarus 2010, 208:252-275). 

Orbital Elements 2016-Jan-13.0
Eccentricity, e 0.1983557131594968
Semimajor Axis, a 2.635059541390353 AU
Perihelion Distance, q 2.112380426840132 AU
Inclination, i 13.95152022059696 deg
Longitude of the Ascending Node, node 332.5020959100165 deg
Argument of the Perihelion, peri 22.86760835921948 deg
Orbital Elements 2016-Jan-13.0
Mean Anomaly, M 93.36827409565841 deg
Time of Perihelion Passage, t p 2014-Dec-03.78929848
Orbital Period 4.28 yr
Mean Motion, n 0.2304190727100094 deg/d
Aphelion Distance Q 3.157738655940573 AU

Images from "Little Palomar Observatory"

Mr. Walter Primik, at his "Little Palomar Observatory" in Austria, realized that on Oct 15, 2014 that asteroid (2650) Elinor might occult a star.  Unfortunately, the weather prevented the observation of the possible occultation.  However, he did get some lovely images of both (2650) Elinor and (14) Irene in the same field during July 2014.  Additiona images show (2650) Elinor passing in front of a galaxy.  The final images show Mr. Primik's observatory and telescope.

Path of 2650 Elinor in Capricornus before occultation of HD 199011

Close encounter between 14 Irene and 2650 Elinor in Capricornus

Encounter of 14 Irene and 2650 Elinor

2650 Elinor in Capricornus

2650 Elinor on Aug 17 2014 UT

Occultation of Galaxy, Aug 17 2014 UT

2650 Elinor in Capricornus

2650 Elinor in Capricornus

2650 Elinor in Capricornus

2650 Elinor on Oct 14 2014

Walter Primik at Little Palomar Observatory

Newtonian 8" f/4.5 Telescope