Search

We discovered 83 asteroids at the Baldone Astrophysical Observatory (MPC code 069) in 2017–2022. We studied one of the dynamically interesting Apollo (Near Earth object) observed at the Baldone Astronomical Observatory, namely 428694 Saule (2008 OS9) and the Centaur-type asteroid 330836 Orius (2009 HW77). We studied the evolution of the asteroid Saule’s rotation period, obliquity, and spin axis together with its non-gravitational parameter da∕dt{\rm{d}}a/{\rm{d}}t connected with the Yarkovsky effect. Additionally, we studied the orbit of the Amor-type asteroid 2017 UW42, which has the significant non-gravitational parameter A2A2.

This article focuses on Jewish women in the Nazi ghettos of German-occupied Latvia and Lithuania. It uses testimonies and memoirs of survivors to develop a narrative about life force atrocities at these sites, highlighting ways in which being a Jewish woman shaped the experience of the ghettos, where gendered risks were ubiquitous. Being a woman in the ghettos meant being both exploited and undervalued as a source of physical labor, targeted as a potential or actual bearer of children, and violated as an object of racist and sexist ideology and rage. Life force atrocities have physical and symbolic dimensions, targeting bodies, bonds, and norms of the community. This work considers what women’s accounts tell us about the presence – or ubiquity – of life force atrocities in the Baltic ghettos. It draws on the concepts of the universe of obligation and social death to highlight key roots and consequences of these atrocities for women. In testimonies and memoirs, we encounter themes of pregnancy, forced abortion, the wrenching loss of loved ones, sexual violence, and decisions made in the desperate hope of saving oneself or another. Survivor accounts are key to revealing life force atrocities as defining features of the Nazi ghettos, and the gendered risks faced by women prisoners in Nazi-occupied Riga, Daugavpils, and Kaunas.

The main belt asteroids 4747, 5255, 11411, 15433, and 17866 were studied at the Baldone Astrophysical Observatory in the time span range 2018–2022. The obtained light curve data together with published Minor Planet Center data are analyzed with Fourier series, Lomb-Scargle periodogram, and phase dispersion minimization methods. A plan of analysis is given. The results computed from different observatories’ data are compared, and mean-weighted periods are obtained.

During the 40-year photographic period of astronomical observations, the Baldone Astrophysical Observatory has accumulated more than 22,000 direct and 2,500 spectral images. In 2018, the digitization of direct astrophoto images with a resolution of 1200 dpi was completed. A processing methodology for obtaining the equatorial coordinates and photometric characteristics of the objects recorded in digitized astronegatives using the LINUX/MIDAS/ROMAFOT environment has been developed at the Main Astronomical Observatory of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Program package with success already works in seven observatories. A description of the operation of this program complex in stages and analysis of the obtained results is given. The steps describe the astrometric and photometric reduction process of digital records, as well as the reduction of the obtained instrumental magnitudes to the Johnson UBVR photometric system. The methodology of characteristic curve construction in the case of one exposure is described in detail. From all digitized astrophotoplates to date Approximately 2200 V film negatives, 300 U plates and several R, B plates were processed. As a result, catalogs of the positions and magnitudes of Pluto, 1848 asteroids and comets were obtained. 31 new positions were recorded in the VizieR Pluto catalog VI/155. It was found that the root-mean-square errors of the reduction of the measured coordinates to the equatorial coordinate system of the Tycho-2 catalog have values σRA,DEC= 0.1-0.2”, and the root-mean-square errors of the reduction of instrumental photometric quantities m to the Johnson system of stellar UBVR-values are also in within σUBVR = 0.1 − 0.2m.

This paper is devoted to the discovery of 37 asteroids at the Baldone Astrophysical Observatory (MPC 069) from 2015 to 2018, and one of dynamically interesting Mars-crosser (MC) observed at the Baldone Astrophysical Observatory, namely 2008 LX16. In Baldone Observatory, was independently discovered the Near-Earth Object 2018 GE3 on the image of 13 April 2018. Also, the NEO 2006 VB14 was observed doing its astrometry and photometry. Moreover, we observed asteroids 1986 DA and 2014 LJ1. We computed orbits and analyzed the orbital evolution of these asteroids. 566 positions and photometric observations of NEO objects 345705 (2006 VB14) and 6178 (1986 DA) were obtained with Baldone Schmidt telescope in 2018 and 2019. We detected their rotation period and other physical characteristics. Also, a Fourier transform was applied to determine the rotation period of asteroid 6178 (1986 DA). Value (3.12 ± 0.02)h was obtained. Our observations confirm the previously obtained rotation periodP=3.25hfor2006VB14.

The aim of this research is to evaluate accuracy of Plate Processing Method and to perform a detailed study of the Epson Expression 10000XL scanner, which was used to digitize plates from the database collection of the 1.2 m Schmidt Telescope installed in the Baldone Observatory. Special software developed in LINUX/MIDAS/ROMAFOT environment was used for processing the scans. Results of the digitized files with grey gradations of 8- and 16-bits were compared; an estimation of the accuracy of the developed method for rectangular coordinates determination and photometry was made. Errors in the instrumental system are ±0.026 pixels and ±0.024m for coordinates and stellar magnitudes respectively. To evaluate the repeatability of the scanner’s astrometric and photometric errors, six consecutive scans of one plate were processed with a spatial separation of 1200 dpi. The following error estimations are obtained for stars brighter than U< 13.5m: σxy = ±0.021 to 0.027 pixels and σm = ±0.014m to 0.016m for rectangular coordinates and instrumental stellar magnitudes respectively.

The paper presents statistics of the asteroids observed and discovered at the Baldone Observatory, Latvia, in 2008–2013 within the project for astrometric observations of the near-Earth objects (NEOs), the main belt asteroids and comets. CCD observations of the asteroids were obtained with the 0.80/1.20 m, f/3 Schmidt telescope and a ST-10XME 15 × 10 mm CCD camera. In the Minor Planet Circulars and the Minor Planet Electronic Circulars (2008–2013) we published 3511 astrometric positions of 826 asteroids. Among them, 43 asteroids were newly discovered at Baldone. For 36 of these asteroids the precise orbits are calculated. Because of short observational arc and small number of observations, a few asteroids have low-precision orbits and their tracks have been lost. For seven objects with poorly known orbits we present their ephemerides for 2015–2016. The orbits and the evolution of orbital elements of two asteroids, (428694) 2008 OS9 from the Apollo group and the Centaur (330836) Orius (2009 HW77), are recalculated including new observations obtained after 2011.

A project for astrometric and photometric observations of asteroids at the Baldone Observatory is described. One of the most important results of the project is the discovery of 2008 OS9, a 600 meter asteroid of the NEO Apollo group. The results of its astrometric and photometric observations at the Molėtai and Baldone observatories are presented. From the brightness variation with the 0.27 mag amplitude, a rotation period of 8.430 ± 0.005 h is determined. Close approaches of the asteroid to Earth and Venus during the next millenium are predicted. The mean values of secular changes in the semi-major axis, eccentricity and inclination are computed with and without the Yarkovsky and YORP effects. A negative value of the difference between the value of semi-major axis computed with the Yarkovsky and YORP effects and without them, da/dt, may indicate retrograde rotation of the asteroid.

R-N classification of 187 faint carbon stars is based on the classical criteria adjusted to the yellow-red spectral region, with two new criteria added - the ratios of the red CN bands 6206/6332 (Å) and 6478/6631 (Å).