Discovery date 24 February 1982 Observation arc 12426 days (34.02 yr) Inclination 6.008591° Orbits Sun Discovery site Oak Ridge Observatory | MPC designation (9929) McConnell Discovered 24 February 1982 Argument of perihelion 62.170374° Discovered by Oak Ridge Observatory Asteroid group Asteroid belt | |
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Alternative names 1982 DP1, 1984 WH3, 1996 GZ7 Aphelion 2.5893789 AU (387.36557 Gm) Semi-major axis 2.2762123 AU (340.51651 Gm) | ||
(9929) McConnell) is a main belt asteroid. It orbits the Sun once every 3.43 years.
Discovered on February 24, 1982 by the Oak Ridge Observatory, this asteroid was given the provisional designation "1982 DP1". It was later renamed "McConnell" after John C. McConnell, a historian of astronomy.
John C. McConnell FRAS, (Fellow of The Royal Astronomical Society) who was born in May 1946, comes from Maghaberry, Northern Ireland, and is well known among both professional and amateur astronomers, takes a particular interest in observational astronomy and astrophotography, and also in the history of Irish astronomy, where he has amassed a vast collection of material. In 1999 he was awarded the Aidan P Fitzgerald Memorial Medal of the Irish Astronomical Association, and later made an Honorary Life Member of NIAAS.
The asteroid, (9929) McConnell, was discovered in 1982 at the Oak Ridge Observatory, in Harvard, Massachusetts, which was operated by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics where Armagh Observatory's former Director Dr. Eric Mervyn Lindsay (1907-1974) spent a number of years working for his Ph.D. more than 70 years ago. The minor planet is very faint, being only 5 miles across and currently lying more than 130 million miles away from the Earth in the constellation of Canes Venatici. It has a nearly circular orbit passing close to the inner edge of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.[1]