MAP Alert #356, February 18, 2007
 
Observations from Andrew Salthouse, questions from Roger Dymock, and
much housekeeping news on my end highlight this post 1 meter snowfall
MAP Alert. 
 
Andrew reports
Over the last two nights (after digging my observatory out from under the snow), I observed 5448 Siebold among others. 
 It appeared a tad brighter than predicted, although my estimates might be a bit off.  It was predicted at 14.4 but it 
seemed closer to 14 or so.  It may or may not meet the 0.3 mag threshold for a MAP object.  Can anyone else 
confirm or deny this?  Please let me know,>
 
Call for observations for this object, lets hope for stars not snow!
 
Roger Dymock submits good questions on the MAP program below
 
1. how does one join the project ?
 
2. where can I find a list of asteroids needing magnitude estimates (visual and CCD)  ?
 
3 where are estimates sent and is there a standard format ?
 
To address the first question, I have placed a new section to at the new webpage, which looks just like the old page (more later)
http://home.earthlink.net/~lgasteroid/ see join map. I have included a download link for those wishing to save the file (new
feature) 
 
2. With all the tables Gerard has produced, I could just say pick anyone, he has covered MAP so well.  But this is a lot to review.
    Following the most recent objects in the MAP alerts will give any observer a next nights out selection. The way I do it is to produce  
    list of currently visible asteroids with GUIDE 8.0, and see if any MAP objects are in good  position for observing. This requires a database
   search around full moon for the upcoming dark nights. 
 
 
3. I have included this under join MAP now online, and remind observers to read the observers package  @
   http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~rhill/alpo/minplan/observerpackage2006.zip
 
 
I hope these brief answers are of help.
 
 
And last, to close with house keeping of the past few weeks. You will notice the 1 meter snow fall mention, better put
my hands hurt even picking up a piece of paper from all the snow clearing these past three days. I returned with a new 
ISP last week, on the 13th, to have a monster storm take over everything until today. When I changed to Earthlink, I had
hope for a better web services then my Trellix  under Verizon. To my horror, I found out Earthlink is Trellix as well. But a 
feature (web gems) will permit me better handling of files then before (this might have been missed by me on Verizon).
Readers will be able to read the file and save them better as you will see later on after this alert reaches the page.
I have a 2x faster service now, so the move was worth it. 
 
Please notice this alert still comes from my MSN address which is still active. Please use my lgasteroid@earthlink.net
for mail, I will use msn for other things like mailings for now. Should one forget, I will still see your mail,  so its 
no large problem, but still update to earthlink, thanks.
 
I will let readers go for now, rest my hands, and get to work later today if possible.
 
Lawrence Garrett
ALPO Minor Planet Section
Assistant Coordinator
lgasteroid@earthlink.net     revised mail address

AUDE WebPages
Gerard Faure (8297 gerardfaure)
http://www.astrosurf.com/map    revised URL