Indiana Asteroid Program

Indiana Asteroid Program is the name for an asteroid search program that took advantage of photographic asteroid observations and was operated from 1949 to 1967 at the Goethe Link Observatory in Brooklyn in the State of Indiana.

The project had four objectives:

• Rediscovery of asteroids whose position strongly deviated from the predicted position;
• Recalculation of path data or revision of old calculations;
• Detection of the absolute brightness with an accuracy of 0.1 like; and
• Training of students.

The search program was initiated by Frank K. Edmondson of Indiana University.

The images were taken with a 10- inch f / 6,5 -Cooke triplet astrographs and photometrically evaluated under the direction of Tom Gehrels.

During the duration of the program a total of 119 asteroids were newly discovered.

The search program was set in 1967, because the light pollution the required long exposure times no longer allowed by the neighboring city Indianapolis. The approximately 7,000 photographic plates are kept in the archives of Lowell Observatory.