Focus On: (25) Phocaea

Basics

Class: S-type asteroid
Location: Main belt, Phocaea family
Orbit length (approx): 3.72 years
Discovered: 6th April 1853 (time unknown) from Marseille, France, by Jean Chacornac
Notes: Phocaea measures between 61.05 and 83.21km in diameter.
Events at time of discovery:

• April 7 – Birth of Ella Eaton Kellogg, American pioneer in dietetics
• April 16 – Indian Railways: The first passenger railway in India opens from Bombay to Thana, Maharashtra, 22 miles.
• April 22 – Birth of Alphonse Bertillon, French police officer, forensic scientist

Focus On: (12) Victoria

Basics

Class: S-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 3.56 years
Discovered: 13th September 1850 (time unknown), by John Russell Hind in London, U.K.
Notes: About 112-124 km across with an albedo of 0.18. Victoria has been observed to occult a star three times since its discovery. Elongated; suspected to be a binary asteroid, with a moon of irregular shape.
Events at time of discovery:

• September 5 – Birth of Eugen Goldstein, German physicist
• September 13 – Piz Bernina, the highest summit of the eastern Alps, is first ascended.
• September 18 – The Fugitive Slave Law is passed by the United States Congress. Harriet Tubman becomes an official conductor of the Underground Railroad.

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