Vincenzo Silvano Casulli

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Vincenzo Silvano Casulli (born 1944; usually known as Silvano Casulli) is an Italian amateur astronomer and a discoverer of minor planets.

He is credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of 192 minor planets.^[1] In 1985 he served on a team involved in using the Hubble Space Telescope in a study that focused on Transition Comets—UV Search for OH Emissions in Asteroids. He was the first amateur astronomer to obtain precise astronometric positions of minor planets using a CCD camera. He is a prolific discoverer of asteroids.

In 1997, the inner main-belt asteroid and member of the Flora family, 7132 Casulli, was named by astronomer Antonio Vagnozzi in his honor (M.P.C. 30800).^[2][3]

Discoveries

9121 Stefanovalentini

On 24 February 1998, he discovered 9121 Stefanovalentini at the Italian Colleverde Observatory. It is a carbonaceous asteroid from the outer regions of the main-belt, approximately 30 kilometers in diameter.^[4][5] Casulli also obtained a light-curve from phtometric observations and determined a period of 11.84 hours for the body's rotation.^[5][6] He named it in honour of amateur astronomer Stefano Valentini.^[7]

93061 Barbagallo

Together with Italian astronomer Ermes Colombini and others, he co-discovered the asteroid 93061 Barbagallo on 23 September 2000. The group-discovery is credited to the discovering observatory, Osservatorio San Vittore, Bologna. The asteroid was named after Mariano Barbagallo, an Italian colleague and friend of Colombini.^[8]

List of discovered minor planets

References

External links

• ASTEROIDE N. 7132, on the naming of asteroid 7132 Casulli, including image of Silvano Casulli
• Colleverde di Guidonia, Gruppo Astrofili Montagna Pistoiese