Why should an observatory in Texas name an asteroid for Steve Irwin?
Mostly, because the folks in our Fort Bend Astronomy Club “asteroid team” liked him and greatly missed him, and wanted to do something to honor him and his work. We also thought that our observatory was particularly appropriate. Like Steve, our observatory’s primary purpose is public education. It is open to the public every Saturday night, and open to groups most Fridays and some Sundays and Thursdays. Keeping the observatory open requires a 3-way partnership between volunteers from the Fort Bend Astronomy Club, who do most of the actual running of the telescopes (that’s us!), the Houston Museum of Natural Science, and Brazos Bend State Park. This asteroid was discovered on a busy Saturday night in October, 2001. After finishing up with the public, we often stay late using the same telescopes to make discoveries. Here is a photo of our observatory on a busy Saturday night in October, 2007. The “East dome”, where this asteroid was discovered, is the one on the left. The bright starli
