CHALDAEA (313)

The video below is a combination of nine CCD images of asteroid Chaldaea taken on April 1, 2003 and April 2, 2003 with the Bowling Green State 0.5 meter telescope and CCD. The images were taken from 9:13 PM EST to 1:54 AM EST. Each image was exposed from twenty-five seconds. The time or each exposure is included on the movie screen. On the night of observing, Chaldaea had a magnitude of 11.4 and was moving around 0.52 arcseconds/ minute.

Chaldaea was discovered on August 30, 1981 by J. Palisa in Vienna. The asteroid is named after the ancient region of Southern Mesopotamia settled around 1,000 b.c. Chaldaea was the 313th asteroid listed in the catalog of asteroids compiled by the International Astronomical Union. It is approximately 2.37 AU from the sun, less than 1 AU from Mars. Chaldaea orbits the sun in about 3.66 years. Chaldaea's orbit is inclined to the plane of the ecliptic by about 11.64 degrees, greater than all of the planets but Pluto. Its eccentricity is roughly 0.18, flatter than all of the planets except for Mercury and Pluto. Click here and type "313" to see Interamnia's orbit with respect to the planets (requires Java).