Re: asteroids and TASS (information on LINEAR)

[Stupendous Man <richmond@a188-l009.rit.edu>]

  Peter McCullough asked:

> Question for Alain (or anyone else out there): searching the web for
> info on LINEAR turned up next to nothing, and an email to one of the
> LL/MIT investigators bounced back to me. Can you tell us more  about
> the LINEAR system and its goals? (or provide an easily accesible
> reference)?

  You can find some information on LINEAR in the notes I took on
a little conference about Near-Earth Asteroids last year:
  
      http://a188-l009.rit.edu/tass/meetings/neo_jul97.html

As I recall, even LINEAR can't cover all the sky, so there is still a lot
of uncovered area up there for visual searchers!

  Here's all I could find on the Web about LINEAR:

    + Bull. American Astron. Soc., DPS meeting #29, #03.02 (July 1997)
          "Recent Results from the Lincoln Near Earth 
           Asteroid Research (LINEAR) Project", 
           by Viggh, Stokes, Shelly, Blythe and Stuart 

           Abstract: Lincoln Laboratory has a long history of developing
                     electro-optical space surveillance technology for
                     resident space object search, detection, orbit
                     determination, and catalog maintenance. Recent
                     advances in large format, highly sensitive CCDs with
                     fast readout rates, combined with customized data
                     processing systems, make possible the application of
                     these technologies to the search, detection, and
                     cataloging of Earth crossing asteroids. Recent search
                     results using telescopes at the Experimental Test Site
                     in Socorro, NM will be presented, including the
                     discovery of 1249 new MPC designated asteroids,
                     including 4 Near Earth Objects (NEOs) during a three
                     month period in early 1997. 


  By the way, both Peter McCullough and I will be at the "Akerloff" 
session in San Diego, just before the American Astronomical Society 
meeting; this session is devoted to wide-field imaging systems.  
It should be interesting; perhaps other TASSians can attend?  
If interested, contact me for details.

                                           Michael Richmond