AAVSO member Elizabeth has been honored with an asteroid naming!

Community
1

Although the AAVSO forum primarily focuses on variable stars and related celestial objects, I’ve chosen to start a new thread here.
Just now, the WG Small Bodies Nomenclature (WGSBN) announced a batch of new asteroid names.
AAVSO member Elizabeth has been honored with an asteroid naming!

(30300) Waagen = 2000 HF86
Discovery: 2000-04-30 / LONEOS / Anderson Mesa / 699

Discovery citation: Elizabeth O. Waagen (b. 1956) is an American astronomer who helped thousands of amateur astronomers realize their dream of contributing to astronomy. Joining the AAVSO in 1979, she advanced to Senior Technical Assistant and once served as Interim Director. Throughout her career she sustained the organization’s mission, programs, and data collection.

For more information, see: https://www.wgsbn-iau.org/files/Bulletins/latest.pdf

21 Likes
2

Congratulation Elizabeth, this is a well deserved honor.
Damien

1 Like
3

Congratulations Elizabeth. Well deserved for all your dedication in the AAVSO to amateur observers.
Josch

1 Like
4

Amazing news. Congratulations Elizabeth!

1 Like
5

The tens of thousands of discoveries from the LONEOS Schmidt were assigned to the project rather than to individuals. However, I just looked in our records to see that I happened to be the observer on the discovery night. Congrats on a well-deserved asteroid naming!

\Brian

3 Likes
6

Congratulations Elizabeth!! You deserve it!

1 Like
7

@weo Congratulations, Elizabeth! What a richly deserved honor. Everyone who knows you will agree that your name belongs on the list alongside Annie Jump Cannon (1120 Cannonia), Leslie Peltier (3850 Peltier), Robert Burnham Jr. (3467 Bernheim), and Janet Mattei (11695 Mattei)… a list of people who pushed science forward and changed lives.

May I note that your asteroid doesn’t just have a cool name, but a cool number, as well? 30300 Waagen rolls right off the tongue. :slight_smile:

5 Likes
8

Yayyy! Well deserved @weo!!!

1 Like
10

Brian, I’m very happy that you were the LONEOS observer on night of the discovery of (30300) - thank you for letting me know!
All the best,
Elizabeth

11

Thank you very much, everyone! Your kind words are very much appreciated.

Good observing to us all -
Elizabeth

12

Congratulations Elizabeth!

Here are the gory details as captured from the JPL Small Bodies database. Right now it is near solar conjunction so no way to get an image of it.

30300 Waagen (2000 HF86)
Classification: Main-belt Asteroid SPKID: 20030300 Related Links: Ephemeris
Orbit Viewer[show]
Orbit Parameters[hide]
Osculating Orbital Elements
Epoch 2461000.5 (2025-Nov-21.0) TDB
Reference: JPL 43 (heliocentric IAU76/J2000 ecliptic)
Element Value Uncertainty (1-sigma) Units
e 0.05317485828077979 1.4972E-9
a 2.971443068040162 2.7396E-9 au
q 2.813437004007721 2.9821E-9 au
i 10.81290610886876 5.238E-8 deg
node 72.18394813803879 3.6641E-7 deg
peri 218.6204357697029 1.4286E-6 deg
M 295.1873930525349 2.1156E-6 deg
tp 2461337.326720676962
2026-Oct-23.82672068 1.1403E-5 TDB
period 1870.895573479918
5.122232918493958 2.5873E-6
7.0836e-9 d
y
n 0.1924212153275824 2.6611E-10 deg/d
Q 3.129449132072604 2.8852E-9 au
Miscellaneous Details
solution date 2025-Aug-02 11:23:20

obs. used (total) 2436

data-arc span 10054 days (27.53 years)
first obs. used 1997-11-29
last obs. used 2025-06-09
planetary ephem. DE441
SB-pert. ephem. SB441-N16
condition code 0
norm. resid. RMS .58328
source JPL
producer Otto Matic
Earth MOID 1.80388 au
Jupiter MOID 1.95833 au
T_jup 3.234
Physical Parameters[hide]
Parameter Value Units Sigma Reference Notes
[H] absolute magnitude 14.41 E2025G83
diameter 5.338 km 0.254 urn:nasa:pds:neowise_diam…
geometric albedo 0.187 0.036 urn:nasa:pds:neowise_diam…

Jim (DEY)

1 Like
13

Congratulations Elizabeth, well deserved.
Kim Hay
hky

2 Likes
14

Congratulations!

Mike

15

it’s just remarkable! Wow! Congratulations!!