It looks like the MASTER team made an independent discovery of Neptune last night ;-)
Posted today on the Transient Name Server
https://wis-tns.weizmann.ac.il/object/2019vvf
Robin
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An independent discovery of Neptune ?
Sun, 2019-12-01 15:42
#1
An independent discovery of Neptune ?
Ha, similar to the Mars episode. I see you have appended a comment.
Well done them. You'd have thought that one of that almost infinitely long list of authors might have checked...
Nice one Robin - Regards Andrew
A transient loss of common sense?
Seriously, if an amateur did this they would be crucified although at least we are trusted to post discoveries on TNS. We are not allowed to post to The Astronomer's Telegram since we can't be trusted to get things right on our own. I'd be interested to know what checking the MASTER team do before posting their discoveries. Checking for moving objects like asteroids and planets is pretty basic stuff. It would be nice to see a comment on TNS from one of the authors explaining what went wrong but so far nothing.
You probably know this but I've just put the coordinates and time into MPChecker and it doesn't output Neptune. I guess it is in the name.
As you say, that's minor planets. Perhaps we should send them a link to Dominic's site: https://in-the-sky.org/data/planets.php
Some years ago a BAA section director rediscovered Mars after claiming he had found a naked eye nova, and it wasn't me.
Ron
At least when Peter Dunsby discovered Mars (AT 11448 here) he was presented with a nice certificate.
I am tempted to upload a classification spectrum (A G2v star with superimposed methane absorption bands)
You could simply describe the spectrum and make attributions to chemical composition. Rather than go the whole hog to object ID. And post your comment under the pseudonym Urbain Le Verrier.
Go for it. On Twitter too.