90 Antiope

The asteroid's proper name comes from Greek mythology, but it is unclear whether it refers to Antiope the Amazon or Antiope the mother of Amphion and Zethus. Since the discovery of Antiope's binary nature, the name "Antiope" technically refers to the slightly larger of the two components. The smaller component is sometimes referred to under the (unofficial) designation S/2000 (90) 1. However, the name "Antiope" is also used to refer to the binary system as a whole. == Properties ==

The most remarkable feature of Antiope is that it consists of two components of almost equal size (the difference in mass is less than 2.5% Since each component is about 86±1 km across, with their centers separated by only about 171 kilometers, with 2 degrees uncertainty. == Occultations ==

There have been 9 occultations observed since 1988, many of which are multichord occultations. The best is the 19 July 2011 event observed from 57 stations spread out along the western USA coast where 46 stations recorded positive occultations and 11 stations observed misses. However many of the misses were important to clearly separate the two components of 90 Antiope. Many planned stations were unfortunately clouded. Many stations were so-called Mighty-Mini or Mighty-Maxi, consisting of a binocular objective (homemade using binoculars + hacksaw + plumbing fittings) with a video camera and Video Time Inserter (VTI), and were pre-pointed and left to run unattended, thereby allowing one observer to deploy many stations. The crater mentioned above was confirmed by this occultation. == References ==