An Overview of Lulin Sky Survey

A three-year survey program of small solar system bodies was carried out with the 0.41-m Ritchey-Chretien telescope at Lulin Observatory in Taiwan from 2006-2009, the program is performed remotely from mainland China with self-developed robotic software and was aimed at detecting new minor planets and comets, as well as improving the orbits of known minor planets and comets. Photometric studies of a few selected unusual minor planets have also been conducted. During the three-year study, a total of 781 new objects were discovered, including C/2007 N3 (Lulin) and three fragments of 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann. A total of 80,934 astrometric observations were reported to the Minor Planet Center, with an internal error below 0.5". As the observatory is located at a longitude where there are few other minor planet observers, the program also provided immediate confirmation for a number of newly-discovered near-Earth asteroids. The possibility of detecting transients (such as supernovas or long-period variable stars) using the data is also explored.