Takeshi Urata

Minor planets discovered: 642 [1]
see § List of discovered minor planets

Takeshi Urata (浦田 武, Urata Takeshi, 1947 – December 15, 2012)[2] was a Japanese astronomer. He was a prolific discoverer of asteroids, observing at Nihondaira Observatory.

In 1978 he became the first amateur to discover a minor planet (2090 Mizuho) in over fifty years, which he named after his daughter, Mizuho.[3] His pioneering feat led to an upsurge in such discoveries. In the ten years that followed, amateurs from Japan discovered 160 minor planets.[4][5] Urata shared his observation data with peer astronomers in Japan on a periodical called "Tenkai" (the Heavens),[6][7][8][9][10] as well as contributed to academic journals such as Advances in Space Research[11] and participated in poster presentations at astronomical conferences.[12]

Urata co-discovered the periodic comet 112P/Urata-Niijima in 1986. One of the most active amateur astronomers in Japan, he was also an editor of the Japanese Ephemerides of Minor Planets. The 1927-discovered asteroid 3722 Urata is named after him.[13]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference MPC-Discoverers was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ 2012年天文ゆく年くる年 (in Japanese). AstroArts. December 28, 2012. Retrieved February 19, 2013.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference springer-Mizuho was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Kosai, H.; Urata, T. & Nakamura, T. "Activities of Asteroid Studies by Amateur Astronomers in Japan". Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series. Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series. Seventy-five (75) years of Hirayama asteroid families: The role of collisions in the solar system history. Vol. 63. Sagamihara near Tokyo, Japan; San Francisco. Bibcode:1994ASPC...63..297K.
  5. ^ Liller, William (1992-10-30). The Cambridge Guide To Astronomical Discovery. Cambridge University Press. pp. 37, 222. ISBN 978-0-521-41839-3.
  6. ^ Urata, Takeshi (1966). "キルストン彗星の写真" [Kilston comet on photographs]. 天界 Tenkai (The Heavens) (in Japanese). 47 (497): 275–276. ISSN 0287-6906.
  7. ^ Urata, Takeshi (1979). "1970LDの近日点軌道も役立ちました" [Data sourced from the perihelion orbital of 1970LD]. 天界 Tenkai (The Heavens) (in Japanese). 60 (652): 235–237.
  8. ^ Hasegawa, Ichirō; Urata, Takeshi (1980). "小惑星の絶対光度の統計" [The statistics of asteroid absolute luminosity]. 天界 Tenkai (The Heavens) (in Japanese). 60 (655): 324–326.
  9. ^ Urata, Takeshi (1980). "ランダム・ドット・ステレオグラムと小惑星" [Asteroid and random dot stereogram]. 天界 Tenkai (The Heavens) (in Japanese). 74 (818): 324–326.
  10. ^ Urata, Takeshi (1994). "私のCCD観測事始め" [Why I finally applied CCD to observation]. 天文月報 Tenmon Geppō (in Japanese). 87 (2): 67–72.
  11. ^ "A new 1 m telescope for space debris survey observations". Advances in Space Research. Vol. 34, Iss. 5, 2004, pp 917–920
  12. ^ Urata, Takeshi; Urakawa, Seitarō; Okumura, Shin'ichirō; Nishiyama, Kouta (1994). "美星スペースガードセンターにおける小惑星観測" [Asteroid observation at Bisei Space Guard Center]. Autumn 2007 Proceedings. 2 (87). contributors include Tsuyoshi Sakamoto, Atsuo Asami, Tuguyasu Hashimoto, Noritsugu Takahashi, Makoto Yoshikawa, sponsored by Japan Spaceguard Association, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA): 67–72. doi:10.14909/jsps.2007f.0.109.0.
  13. ^ Schmadel, Lutz D. (2003). Dictionary of minor planet names (5th ed.). Springer. p. 314. ISBN 978-3-540-00238-3.