Leda

#581450
Dr Paul Leyland
Participant

First off, I’ve verified my stacking code does the Right Thing by digging out some old images of (532) Herculina where it is by far the brightest object in the field and so there’s no chance of missing it.

To answer your question, the (slightly abridged) MPC ephemeris for Leda gives
Date UT R.A. (J2000) Decl.
2019 06 26 000000 17 02 01.7 -22 07 28
2019 06 26 001500 17 02 01.4 -22 07 27
2019 06 26 003000 17 02 01.1 -22 07 26
2019 06 26 004500 17 02 00.9 -22 07 25
2019 06 26 010000 17 02 00.6 -22 07 25
2019 06 26 011500 17 02 00.3 -22 07 24

and my subs were taken between 2019-06-26T00:20:10 and 2019-06-26T01:12:21 inclusive, with a mid-point of 00:46:15.
The brightest pixel in the indicated blob lies at 17:02:01.3 -22:07:26 according to the ds9 viewer.

Good agreement, in other words, especially as the plate scale is 1.42 arcsec/pixel..

You are much more experienced at this sort of thing than I — it’s my first attempt — so how much credence would you place on the identification?

It’s pretty clear that when I next attempt to image Leda I should aim for a much longer total exposure time.