Frank B. Zoltowski (born 1957) is an Australian amateur astronomer and prolific discoverer of minor planets who lives in Woomera, South Australia. In 1998, he was awarded a "Gene Shoemaker NEO Grant" for improved near-Earth object searches.
Zoltowski conducts these searches from his home with a charge-coupled device camera. He is a prolific discoverer of asteroids. He authored CCDTRACK, a computer program that auto-guides electronically controlled telescopes by tracking a user-selected celestial object.
He is mentioned in NASA's asteroid tracking database as an observer for asteroid (285263) 1998 QE2. Astronomers at the Minor Planet Center used Zoltowski's work to work out an estimated approach distance for (137108) 1999 AN10 of 56,500 kilometers, and a closest approach date of Aug 7, 2027. It was thought to potentially crash into Earth.
The main-belt asteroid 18292 Zoltowski, discovered at the George R. Agassiz Station of the Harvard College Observatory in 1977, was named in his honor. The naming citation was published on 9 May 2001 (M.P.C. 42676).
List of discovered minor planets
Frank Zoltowski is credited by the Minor Planet Center for the discovery of 228 numbered minor planets between 1997 and 2003.
See also
- List of minor planet discoverers
References
External links
- CCDTrack Software website, Author F. B. Zoltowski
