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Two recent asteroid discoveries made by an amateur astronomer highlight what is possible, with access to the right equipment.<\/em><\/p>\n When it comes to hunting for new astronomical discoveries these days, the competition is stiff. Gone are the days of the lone astronomer with a telescope perched on a lonely hilltop, patiently sweeping the skies looking for something new and out of place.<\/p>\n These days, it\u2019s the \u2018robotic eyes\u2019 of all-sky surveys are more likely to make astronomical discoveries. Tirelessly canvassing the sky from dark locales night after night, these sentinels have definitely won the war when it comes to new discoveries. You\u2019re more likely to see a survey name like \u2018ATLAS\u2019 or \u2018PanSTARRS\u2019 on a new comet today than say, \u2018Johnson\u2019 or \u2018Smith\u2019.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As of writing this, there are close to 624,000 numbered asteroid discoveries and counting. This goes back to 1 Ceres, discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi on the first night of the 19th<\/sup> century. While comets are named after their discoverers, the rights for naming asteroids goes to the discoverer, though these also need final approval from the International Astronomical Union.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not to say that there aren\u2019t still discoveries to be made. Increasingly, amateur astronomers are simply moving their efforts online. Remote telescopes offering observing time worldwide are now becoming available. A pair of recent asteroid discoveries made by amateur astronomer Filipp Romanov highlights this trend. Universe<\/em> Today<\/em> caught up with Filipp recently, to find just how he did it.<\/p>\n \u201cCurrently, in astronomy, many asteroids have already been discovered, for example, bright or close to Earth,\u201d Filipp Romanov told Universe<\/em> Today<\/em>. \u201cBut among minor planets fainter than +20th<\/sup> apparent magnitude, unknown ones can still be found. For an amateur astronomer, this is difficult to do due to the fact that large automatic sky surveys constantly monitor the sky and often find new objects.\u201d<\/p>\n To that end, Romanov took an \u2018if you can\u2019t beat \u2018em, join \u2018em\u2019 approach.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 2022, I got a few hours of observing time (for my astrometric measurements of comets and asteroids) at the two-metre aperture robotic Liverpool Telescope (LT) located on the island of La Palma (in the Canary Islands).\u201d<\/p>\nA Tough (But Not Impossible) Search <\/h2>\n