Focus On: (18) Melpomene

Basics

Class: S-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 3.48 years
Discovered: 24th June 1852 (time unknown), from London, U.K., by John Russell Hind
Notes: Composed of silicates and metals.
Events at time of discovery:

• June 30 – The New Zealand Constitution Act 1852 is passed, giving NZ self-government.
• July 1 – American statesman Henry Clay is the first to receive the honor of lying in state in the United States Capitol rotunda.
• July 5 – Frederick Douglass delivers his famous speech, "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?"

Focus On: (15) Eunomia

Basics

Class: S-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 4.30 years
Discovered: 29th July 1851 (time unknown), from Naples, Italy, by Annibale de Gasparis
Notes: Largest of the stony asteroids.
Events at time of discovery:

• July 20 – Birth of Arnold Pick, Czechoslovakian neurologist
• July 28 – Total solar eclipse visible in Canada, Greenland, Iceland and Northern Europe, the first solar eclipse to be photographed.
• August 12 – Isaac Singer is granted a United States patent for his improved sewing machine.

Focus On: (7) Iris

Basics

Class: S-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 3.69 years
Discovered: 13th August 1847 (time unknown), from London, UK, by John Russell Hind
Events at time of discovery:

• August – Yale Corporation establishes the first graduate school in the United States, as Department of Philosophy and the Arts
• August 21 – Birth of Hale Johnson, American temperance movement leader