Vittorio Goretti (born 1939 – 7 July 2016) was an Italian amateur

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...

and a

discoverer of minor planets This is a list of minor-planet discoverers credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of one or several minor planets (such as near-Earth and main-belt asteroids, Jupiter trojans and distant objects). , the discovery of 612,011 nu ...

at his observatory in

Pianoro Pianoro ( Bolognese: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Bologna in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, in the hills of the Tusco-Emilian Apennines, above sea level. Highway SS 65 connects the town to Bologna and Florence across th ...

, on the outskirts of

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

, Italy. Vittorio Goretti is a retired teacher of physics and mathematics at secondary school level in

. He has discovered 32 main-belt asteroids, all of them assigned permanent numbers. He is a member of the Cortina Astronomical Association (Associazione Astronomica Cortina) and is also a collaborator with the Minor Planet Center (MPC) at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory monitoring near-Earth Asteroids brighter than magnitude 18.0 V under the auspices of Division III of the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreac ...

at his own Pianoro Observatory (MPC Observatory 610). The main-belt asteroid 7801 Goretti has been named in his honour. The official naming citation was published on 16 October 1997 ().

List of discovered minor planets

References

External links

Vittorio Goretti photograph at Associazione Astronomica Cortina website
accessed 14 April 2011 {{DEFAULTSORT:Goretti, Vittorio 1939 births Discoverers of asteroids * 20th-century Italian astronomers 2016 deaths