Astraea, discovery

A S T R A E A

Astraea or 5 is a little asteroid situated between Mars & Jupiter orbit. Its excentricity is 0.1911 a clasic number to asteroid kinds, by the way, at perihelion Astraea is situated at 2.08 A.U. & aphelion at 3.07 AU. Medium distance is 2.575 AU. The orbital period of Astraea is 4.13 years & its inclination with the ecliptic plane is 5.36º.

During the night that I located & discovered it was situated at Libra constellation very closed to b librae. Astraea was discovered by Mr. Hencke at December 8^th of 1845; & it has a diameter of 125 km. ± 7 km. Rotation period is 16.18 hours.

During the oposition of year 2000, Astraea was located at Libra constellation & so close to b librae with conjuntion with it at May 27^th at 10' arc to south, only. By the way, it was a good point to find ti without problems during the first night at magnitude 10.3. The first observation was made at 21h.37m UT of May 26^th, I was located it to 30' arc to west of b librae, & second night was made at 21h. 16m. UT of May 28^th, where I would see the moviment of asteroid at the field that you see down one. By the way, the located & discovery date to Astraea was May 26^th, 2000.

Thanks to the program Guide version 7.0 & the graphic that you can see down one, it was posible to find it without problems at first night. By the way, the discovery date of Astraea is May 26^th, 2000.

By the other hand, with a Java program that I found on the net, & thanks to Osamu Ajiki of AstroArts&y Ron Baalke of JPL, you can see the asteroid orbit, distans in relationship to Sun 6 Earth at Solar System for any date.

At greek mithology, Astraea or Astraioz, according to many author is belonged to Virgo constellation. Zeus & Temin's' daughter was identified at many times with justicie. According to Arato, she live between men of Gold Age, she take refuge in the mountains at Silver Age, & she had to flee at sky at Bronze Age.