Huachuca Astronomy Club—Speakers

Andrea Boattini , Catalina Sky Survey
University of Arizona

"The Catalina Sky Survey: A Transition through NEO Survey Generations"


Andrea Boattini

Synopsis: On May 16, 2008, Andrea Boattini gave a talk to the Huachuca Astronomy Club entitled, "The Catalina Sky Survey: A Transition through NEO Survey Generations." The Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) is one of the four programs currently funded by NASA to discover and track the orbits of Near Earth Objects. From mid-2004 up to 2008 CSS has discovered about 1,500 Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) and 100 comets, using three telescopes: a 29-inch Schmidt and a 60-inch reflector located on the Catalina mountains near Tucson, Arizona, and the 20-inch Uppsala Schmidt at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia. During this time span the three telescopes have contributed to more than 60% of all the NEA discoveries. Survey strategies and results were discussed.



Catalina Sky Survey

Biography:
Andrea Boattini was born in 1969 in Italy, where he grew up as an amateur astronomer. He was always interested in astronomy, but he credits the Voyager 2 mission's encounter with Saturn in 1981 with energizing his interest even further, getting him involved with photography, double stars, astrometry, and eventually minor planets. After developing a growing interest in minor planets, he graduated in 1996 from the University of Bologna with a thesis on near-Earth objects (NEOs). He is involved in various projects related to NEO follow-up and search programs, with special interest in the NEO class known as Atens. He worked at the Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica (IASF), Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR, National Research Council) in Rome. His decision to enter a doctorate program in astronomy landed him at the University of Arizona. As a professional astronomer, he is a prolific discoverer of asteroids and comets. He has discovered the comets C/2007 W1 (Boattini) and C/2008 J1 (Boattini). The asteroid 8925 Boattini is named in his honor. He now works at the Lunar and Planetary Lab at the University of Arizona on the Catalina Sky Survey.


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