704 INTERAMNIA

The video below is a combination of six CCD images of asteroid Interamnia taken on April 1, 2003 and April 2, 2003with the Bowling Green State University 0.5 meter telescope and CCD. The images were taken from 9:06 PM EST to 12:18 AM EST. Each image was exposed for twenty-five seconds. On the night of observing, Interamnia had a magnitude of 11.9 and was moving at around 0.26 arcseconds/ minute.

Interamnia was discovered on October 2, 1910 by Vincenzo Cerulli. The asteroid was given the Latin name for the town in which it was discovered, Teramo, Italy. Interamnia was the 704th asteroid listed in the catalog of asteroids compiled by the International Astronomical Union. It is approximately 3.07 AU from the sun, placing it well within the boundaries of the asteroid belt. Interamnia orbits the sun in about 5.37 years. Interamnias' orbit is inclined to the plane of the ecliptic by about 17.32 degrees, making its inclination almost equal Pluto's at about 17.2 degrees. Its eccentricity is roughly 0.15, flatter than all of the planets' except for Mercury and Pluto. Click here and type "704" to see Interamnia's orbit with respect to the planets (requires Java).