Lightcurve results for 8417 LanceTaylor.
Period 6.538 +/- 0.002 hours. Amplitude 1.71 +/- 0.02 magnitude.
Asteroid 8417 LanceTaylor is a main belt asteroid with an estimated diameter of 6 km. It was discovered on November 7, 1996 by K. Endote and K. Watenabe at Kitomi. The semi-major axis is 2.23 AU, the eccentricity is 0.194 and the inclination is 5.81 degrees.
This asteroid was chosen as it is named after a good friend. My first observations were made on seven nights during the period from July 16 to August 16, 2002. Considerable difficulty was encountered during the analysis as the asteroid was located in a very rich portion of the Milky Way. Many images had to be discarded due to the close proximity of field stars. The resulting lightcurve indicated a period of 6.538 hours.
Further observations of the asteroid were made on six nights between August and October, 2012. This time a well-defined lightcurve with a period of 3.5862 hours resulted as shown below. This was very different from the 2002 result.
Since the two results were so different, I went back and re-analised my 2002 observations using newer software that reduces the problems of nearby field stars. This new analysis showed that the 2002 data was consistent with a 3.5862 hour period. The combined 2002/2012 lightcurve is shown below.
Below is an animation from one night's observations from 2012.
