1780 Kippes, provisional designation A906 RA, is an Eoan asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 28 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 12 September 1906, by astronomer August Kopff at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in southwest Germany.[12] The asteroid was named after German Catholic priest and amateur astronomer Otto Kippes.[2]
Orbit and classification
Kippes is a member the Eos family (606), the largest asteroid family of the outer main belt consisting of nearly 10,000 asteroids.[3][4][13]: 23 It orbits the Sun in the outer main-belt at a distance of 2.9–3.2 AU once every 5 years and 3 months (1,914 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.05 and an inclination of 9° with respect to the ecliptic.[1]
The body's observation arc begins at Heidelberg in 1906, one week after its official discovery observation.[12]
The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link adopts the results obtained by IRAS, that is, an albedo of 0.1212 and a diameter of 27.92 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 10.68.[3][6]
Naming
This minor planet was named after German Catholic priest and amateur astronomer Otto Kippes (1905–1994). He was a precise observer, acknowledged for his orbit calculations and identifications of hundreds of minor planets in widely separated oppositions.[2][14] The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 15 June 1973 (M.P.C. 3508).[15]
^Lehmann, Gerhard; Kandler, Jens; Knöfel, André (14 August 2013). "Amateurastronomen am Sternenhimmel" [Amateur astronomers in the starry sky] (in German). Archived from the original on 23 August 2007.
^Schmadel, Lutz D. (2009). "Appendix – Publication Dates of the MPCs". Dictionary of Minor Planet Names – Addendum to Fifth Edition (2006–2008). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. p. 221. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-01965-4. ISBN978-3-642-01964-7.