Having ‘discovered’ a new asteroid in October 2012, John was disappointed to find that the USA Catalina Sky Survey (703) had discovered it the night before.

Almost 10 years later, on 6^th September 2022 John received confirmation that his request to name the asteroid was honoured and that the asteroid is officially named (507490) Possum!

See: https://minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?utf8=%E2%9C%93&object_id=possum.

The full story is available in John’s article in the September RASNZ Newsletter and interviews via YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4ifAp41dy4 and via podcast - https://thekiwiastronomers.podbean.com/

Article added: Friday 16 September 2022