Stuff already at Lagrangia?

Eric,

Thanks for another very informative post.

>
> The specific Sun-Earth L4,L5 points are 60 degrees from the sun, but models
> of halo orbits around them would range from close to the Earth to the far
> side of the Sun. And the halo orbits can extend across a large region.
>

This considreably extends the search area, providing more observing opportunities.

This is a whole new category of objects I think, versus NEO's. Let us define a categeroy of VNEO's - Very Near Earth Objects, as those which are in Earth-Moon synchronous orbits, as opposed to Earth-Sun synchronous orbits.

So far, nobody has discovered a VNEO, although Chad(?) posted a link to some Polish observations of clouds of dust in Earth-Moon synchronous orbits.

A typical observing session for VNEOs would go like this:-

Before full Moon: wait until moonset (which occurs after sunet), prior to that time stray light will obscure faint objects. Pick an area within a few degrees of the ecliptic which is well away from the milky way, and also well away from the Sun and the Moon. Track this area with the largest available telescope for several hours until it goes below the horizon (or the preceding smog layer).

After full Moon: pick a similar area on the ecliptic. Start observing in the evening as soon as the sky gets dark, and stop before moonrise.

We could get useful data through much of the lunar cycle, except for a few days around Full Moon.

> Recently, I brought up the suggestion that we try to work with the people
> who maintain prioritized observing lists of potential NEO threats, to
> create another list of objects to observe as potential resource targets.
>

Here here.

> Anyway, I will try raising this issue with them.
>

Great !