Asteroid 978 Aidamina


978 Aidamina is a main belt asteroid with an estimated diameter of about 10 km. It was discovered on November 29, 1921 by K. Reinmuth in Heidelburg. The semi-major axis is 2.564 AU, the eccentricity is 0.270 and the inclination is 5.027 degrees.

I first observed this asteroid on two nights in August, 2003. This short set of observations, combined with a relatively large scatter in the data, meant that no clear period with a double peak could be derived. Out of several single peak possibilities, the one presented here of around 9.5 hours appeared to fit the data the best.



2004 lightcurve results for 978 Aidamina.
Derived period 9.5? hours, Amplitude 0.2 magnitude +/- 0.05 magnitude.

A more extensive set of observations was obtained in 2008, over twelve nights between June 25 and September 2. The derived period was 10.094 hours and the amplitude 0.35 magnitude, in close agreement with the earlier result.



2011 lightcurve results for 978 Aidamina.
Derived period 10.094 ± 0.001 hours, Amplitude 0.35 magnitude +/- 0.02 magnitude.