ALBERTO QUIJANO VODNIZA

Master in Physics - University of Puerto Rico
Director of "University of Narino Observatory"
Member of the "American Astronomical Society"
Pasto, Narino. COLOMBIA

The Professor Alberto Quijano Vodniza got a Bachelor’s Degree on Physics and Mathematics from the University of Nariño and a Master’s Degree on Physics of the University of Puerto Rico. Nowadays he pursues a career as Associate Professor appointed for the Physics Department of the University of Nariño; he was dean of the Natural Sciences Faculty on year 2004 and he is the founder and director of the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Nariño, director of the research line on Astrophysics at the same University. He has participated in numerous international meetings (Puerto Rico, Chile, Uruguay, Belgium, United States, France) as well as national, as lecturer. He has published astronomical photographies and data on portals of NASA, JET PROPULSION LABORATORY, SPACEWEATHER, and some European and Asian websites, as well as in Colombian websites: UNIVERSIA, CONEXIÓN COLOMBIA, and the belonging to the Red Colombiana de Astronomía (RAC). He has been interviewed by the national television and radio broadcast networks TODELAR, RCN, CARACOL and CMI and by the international TELEMUNDO, RADIO FRANCIA and VOICE OF AMERICA (V.O.A). There have also been published articles on CROMOS magazine and the newspapers EL TIEMPO and EL PAIS. The journal GERENTE-BusinessWeek selected him as one of the 100 Colombian leaders on 2005.

He has received various honors and awards from the University of Nariño, la Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia- at Pasto and the organizations: History Academy of Nariño, Correo del Sur and Droguería Santa Isabel of Pasto. 

The thesis research with which he gained his degree as Master in Physics was published by UMI publishing house, from Ann Arbor, Michigan-USA in the year 2003. He has written articles for the Colombian Journal of Physics (Revista Colombiana de Física), and with the support of the University of Nariño it was released the CD “Astronomía Digital” in the year 2002.

He was involved in the program SMALL TELESCOPE SCIENCE PROGRAM (STSP), program associate to the project DEEP IMPACT from NASA, and he has launched the following research works: Obtaining of the Luminous Curve of the Comet Hale-Bopp, Design of an Experimental Method for Measuring Stellar Temperatures Through the CCD Camera and Spectrometry, Starshine Project, Obtaining of the Luminous Curve of the Comets C/2002 T7 Linear, C2001Q4 Neat, and Spectrometry of C/2001Q4 Neat; Experimental Establishment of the Rotation Velocity of the Satellite Io Around Jupiter, Obtaining of the Luminous Curve of the Asteroid 4179 Toutatis, The Deep Impact Event As Seen From The University Of Nariño Observatory -Colombia, Obtaining of the Luminous Curve and Spectrometry of the Comet 73P/Schwassmann, Obtaining of the Brightness Curves of Variable Stars and Search For Exoplanets.

PUBLISHED BOOKS

→ Quijano Vodniza, Alberto. Obtaining of the Luminous Curve of Comet Hale-Bopp and Measurement of the Rotation Period Through the CCD Camera. University Microfilm (UMI). Ann Arbor Michigan USA. Catalog Number: 1391405 (0-599-01381-8)- 12/29/2003

→ Quijano Vodniza, Alberto. Astronomía Digital (Digital Astronomy). Virtual book on CD published by the Accrediting Office University of Nariño. 2002

→ Quijano Vodniza, Alberto. Design of an Experimental Method for Measuring Stellar Temperatures Through the CCD Camera and Spectrometry.ISBN: 958- 9479 - 68- 5

→ Quijano Vodniza, Alberto. Obtaining of the Luminous Curve of the Comets C/2002T7 Linear, C/2001Q4Neat, and Spectrometry of C/2001Q4Neat.ISBN: 958 – 9479 – 69 – 3

→ The lecture we presented at the event so called “DEEP IMPACT AS A WORLD OBSERVATORY EVENT: SYNERGIES IN SPACE, TIME, AND WAVELENGHT” in Brussels -Belgium in the year 2006 was published in October 2009 in GERMANY by the world famous publishing company SPRINGER-VERLAG in the book named after the Congress. Our work appears on pages 87 to 89 with the title“THE DEEP IMPACT EVENT AS SEEN FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF NARIÑO OBSERVATORY”.

I have participated on several international meetings as speakers:

SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)-VODNIZA

https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/search/q=vodniza&sort=date%20desc%2C%20bibcode%20desc

IMPORTANT PAPERS

1. Near-Earth asteroid 2012 TC4 observing campaign: Results from a global planetary defense exercise. By: Vishnu Reddy et. al. , Alberto Q. Vodniza. Icarus Volume 326, 1 July 2019, Pages 133-150.

2. “MAGNETOSPHERIC ACCRETION IN CLOSE PRE-MAIN-SEQUENCE BINARIES”. By: David R. Ardila, Christopher Jonhs-Krull, Gregory J. Herczeg, Robert Mathieu, Alberto Quijano-Vodniza. ISSN:0004-637X. Septiembre 29/2015. Volume: 811, Number 2. Estados Unidos.

iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0004-637X/811/2/131?fromSearchPage=true

3. “ACCRETION AND MAGNETIC RECONNECTION IN THE CLASICAL T TAURI BINARY DQ TAU”. By: Benjamin M. Tofflemire, Robert D. Mathieu, David R. Ardila, Rachel L. Akeson,David R. Ciardi, Christopher Johns-Krull,Gregory J. Herczeg, and Alberto Quijano-Vodniza.

iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/835/1/8/meta

THE UNIVERSITY OF NARINO OBSERVATORY

http://observatorioastronomico.udenar.edu.co/

The Astronomical Observatory of the University of Nariño was founded on March 2002 by Alberto Quijano Vodniza (Master’s Degree in Physics of the University of Puerto Rico), and built thanks to the immense support given by Dr. Pedro Vicente Obando (Rector: 1995-2004). Nowadays our Observatory operates at the permanent location built under the conduction of Dr. Jairo Muñoz (Rector: 2004-2007) and at present it gets support from the academic authorities at the University of Nariño. It has a dome of approximately 4.5 meters of diameter and a capacious auditorium. At this point in time we own the following instrumentation: A newtonian reflecting telescope MEADE f/4 of 16 inches, a 14 inches MEADE robotic telescope LX200GPS, a CGE Pro 1400 CELESTRON telescope (14 inches), three 8 inches MEADE robotic telescopes LX200GPS, a newtonian reflecting telescope CELESTRON of 8 inches – Dobsonian type, and a CORONADO solar telescope. We have several digital cameras and also a digital spectrometer SBIG, a high resolution spectrometer SHELYAK and a JOVE receptor for analysing the radio signals emitted by Júpiter and the Sun. Electronic Engineering students from the University of Nariño have completed the robotization of the 16’’ MEADE f/4 telescope. The images obtained are processed through specialized software with the purpose of getting correct photometric and astrometric measurements. The observatory is destined for professors and students’ scientific research. For the time being we have an internal club and we open our doors to all the educational institutions in the Department of Nariño.

The Astronomical Observatory’s Director is a member of the AMERICAN ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY – AAS since 2007.

As a result of our research, we have published several books: “Obtaining of the Luminous Curve of Comet Hale-Bopp and Measuring of the Rotation Period Through the CCD Camera”; “Digital Astronomy”; “Design of An Experimental Method for Measuring Stellar Temperatures Through the CCD Camera and Spectrometry”; “Obtaining of the Luminous Curve of the Comets C/2002T7 Linear, C/2001Q4 Neat, and Spectrometry of C/2001 Q4 Neat”.

One of the most important goals of our Observatory is having actively participated in the project “DEEP IMPACT” of NASA. As a result of this scientific event, a book was published in Germany. The book includes the lectures and research papers of the Scientific Congress that gathered theoreticians and observers from many nations, intending to make a full utilization of the observational data set captured from the Earth. The research we presented at this important meeting in 2006 was published in October 2008 in GERMANY by the internationally recognized publishing company “SPRINGER-VERLAG” on the Congress’ namesake book “Deep Impact as a World Observatory Event: Synergies in Space, Time, and Wavelength”. Our work appears with the name “THE DEEP IMPACT EVENT AS SEEN FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF NARIÑO OBSERVATORY”.

Our Astronomical Observatory has also distinguished for having photographed a lot of Asteroids, many of them supremely weak on brightness. In the year 2008 our Observatory received the international code “H78” from the MINOR PLANET CENTERof USA , by providing this institution with high quality scientific data of asteroids as well as of comets, and we are the only Colombian observatory to own such code: It’s an international accreditation earned by the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Nariño.

The Asteroid 2002 PZ39 (163373 )   was   discovered in August 10/2002 by LINEAR at Socorro. Unfortunately, this sky rock was the subject of false news as it was reported the asteroid could hit our planet on February 15 of this year. The asteroid has a diameter of about 0.5 km. The asteroid was closer to the earth on February 15 /2020 (11:05 U.T) and its distance to our planet was 5.8 million kilometers. From our Observatory, located in Pasto-Colombia, we captured several pictures, videos and astrometry data during four days. The animations were published by SPACEWEATHER on the following dates: February 12 and February 15. The pictures of the asteroid were captured with the following equipment: CGE PRO 1400 CELESTRON (f/11 Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope) and STL-1001 SBIG camera. We calculated the orbital elements and physical parameters. We obtained the following orbital parameters: eccentricity = 0.54637 +/- 0.00223, orbital inclination = 1.668 +/- 0.006 deg, semi-major axis = 1.46875 +/- 0.00505 A.U, longitude of the ascending node = 328.903 +/- 0.007 deg, argument of perihelion = 260.022 +/- 0.019 deg, perihelion distance = 0.666272 +/- 0.000976 A.U, aphelion distance = 2.271 +/- 0.011 A.U, mean motion = 0.55371 +/- 0.00286 deg/d. Physical parameters: Absolute magnitude = 19.4, diameter 560.1 meters (assuming 10% albedo), sidereal orbital period = 650.15 days, earth encounter velocity 16.15 km/s. The parameters were calculated based on 92 observations (Feb. 12-15) with mean residual = 0.26 arcseconds. Our data was published by the Minor Planet Center (MPC) and also appears at the web page of NEODyS . Acknowledgements: The author would like to thank to the University of Narino-Pasto-Colombia and to the students Esteban Botina  and Daniela Tobar who collaborated in the capture of the photographs. 

REFERENCES

[ 1]   https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/asteroid-hit-after-valentines-day/

[ 2]   https://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroids/2002PZ39/2002PZ39_planning.html

[ 3]   https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=163373;orb=1;old=0;cov=0;log=0;cad=1#cad

[ 4]   https://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=159389

[ 5]   https://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=15&month=02&year=2020

 [6]   https://newton.spacedys.com/neodys/index.php?pc=2.1.2&o=H78&ab=10