# Yoshiaki Oshima

Minor planets discovered: 61 :
* see § List of discovered minor planets
Yoshiaki Oshima (大島 良明, Ōshima Yoshiaki) (born 1952) is a Japanese astronomer at Gekko Observatory and prolific discoverer of 61 asteroids as credited by the Minor Planet Center, and include the binary asteroid 4383 Suruga, the potentially hazardous object (7753) 1988 XB and the Jupiter trojan 4715 Medesicaste.

## International asteroid monitoring project

Japan Spaceguard Association (JSGA) is keen to have astronomical education for young people and held Spaceguard Private Investigator of the Stars— the fugitives are asteroids! program in 2001. Yoshiaki Oshima participated as one of the committee member. JSGA submitted a paper on that project in a proceedings, with Oshima as a contributor.
JSGA held an astronomical education program as part of their International Asteroid Monitoring Project, that collaborated with the British Council and its International Schools' Observatory (ISO) program which had involved 12 teams of junior high to senior high school classes from Asian and European countries.
The Private Investigator of Stars was co-sponsored by the British Council which advised the International Asteroid Monitoring Project by coordinating observatory in the Canary islands and participating laboratories for ISO. Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper held an asteroid hunting contest for the JSGA and run articles on their pages. 438 school classes and other teams signed up with 1,317 indibivisuals, and 133 teams reported the results of their observation.
JSGA based its project headquarters in its observatory called Bisei Spaceguard Center, owned by the Japan Space Forum. An optical telescope on the Canary island has been operated by the staff of Astrophysics Research Institute at John Moore University in Liverpool, and images were transmitted to each classroom via internet connection.

## Honors

The outer main-belt asteroid 5592 Oshima is named after him. The naming citation also mentions his contribution to the development of the instrumentation at the Nihondaira Observatory.

## List of discovered minor planets

In 1988, Oshima discovered (7753) 1988 XB, a near-Earth object and potentially hazardous asteroid that approaches the orbit of Earth as close as 2.5 lunar distances. He also discovered 4715 Medesicaste, a 64-kilometer sized Jupiter trojan in 1989. By the end of the same year, he discovered 4383 Suruga a binary with a minor-planet moon. All discoveries he made at the Gekko Observatory (see table below).
| 3843 OISCA | 28 February 1987 | list |
| 4157 Izu | 11 December 1988 | list |
| 4261 Gekko | 28 January 1989 | list |
| 4293 Masumi | 1 November 1989 | list |
| 4383 Suruga | 1 December 1989 | list |
| 4403 Kuniharu | 2 March 1987 | list |
| 4715 Medesicaste | 9 October 1989 | list |
| 4840 Otaynang | 23 October 1989 | list |
| 5123 Cynus | 28 January 1989 | list |
| 5206 Kodomonomori | 7 March 1988 | list |
| 5258 Rhoeo | 1 January 1989 | list |
| 5282 Yamatotakeru | 2 November 1988 | list |
| (5353) 1989 YT | 20 December 1989 | list |
| 5397 Vojislava | 14 November 1988 | list |
| 5730 Yonosuke | 13 October 1988 | list |
| 5740 Toutoumi | 29 November 1989 | list |
| (5810) 1988 EN | 10 March 1988 | list |
| (6903) 1989 XM | 2 December 1989 | list |
| (7284) 1989 VW | 4 November 1989 | list |
| (7569) 1989 BK | 28 January 1989 | list |
| (7753) 1988 XB | 5 December 1988 | list |
| (8008) 1988 TQ$_4$ | 10 October 1988 | list |
| (8157) 1988 XG$_2$ | 15 December 1988 | list |
| (8349) 1988 DH$_1$ | 19 February 1988 | list |
| (9174) 1989 WC$_3$ | 27 November 1989 | list |
| (9314) 1988 DJ$_1$ | 19 February 1988 | list |
| (9320) 1988 VN$_3$ | 11 November 1988 | list |
| (9940) 1988 VM$_3$ | 11 November 1988 | list |
| 10065 Greglisk | 3 December 1988 | list |
| (10299) 1988 VS$_3$ | 13 November 1988 | list |
| (10751) 1989 UV$_1$ | 29 October 1989 | list |
| (11034) 1988 TG | 9 October 1988 | list |
| (11035) 1988 VQ$_3$ | 12 November 1988 | list |
| (11862) 1988 XB$_2$ | 7 December 1988 | list |
| (12251) 1988 TO$_1$ | 9 October 1988 | list |
| (12693) 1989 EZ | 9 March 1989 | list |
| 13934 Kannami | 11 December 1988 | list |
| 14843 Tanna | 12 November 1988 | list |
| (14860) 1989 WD$_3$ | 27 November 1989 | list |
| (15243) 1989 TU$_1$ | 9 October 1989 | list |
| (16426) 1988 EC | 7 March 1988 | list |
| (16434) 1988 VO$_3$ | 11 November 1988 | list |
| (16436) 1988 XL | 3 December 1988 | list |
| (16458) 1989 WZ$_2$ | 21 November 1989 | list |
| (17426) 1989 CS$_1$ | 5 February 1989 | list |
| (18346) 1989 WG | 20 November 1989 | list |
| (19134) 1988 TQ$_1$ | 15 October 1988 | list |
| (21018) 1988 VV$_1$ | 2 November 1988 | list |
| (21021) 1988 XL$_2$ | 7 December 1988 | list |
| (21034) 1989 WB$_3$ | 25 November 1989 | list |
| (26099) 1989 WH | 20 November 1989 | list |
| (27715) 1989 CR$_1$ | 5 February 1989 | list |
| (27721) 1989 WJ | 20 November 1989 | list |
| (30794) 1988 TR$_1$ | 15 October 1988 | list |
| (32785) 1989 CU$_1$ | 10 February 1989 | list |
| (32795) 1989 WA$_3$ | 21 November 1989 | list |
| (35074) 1989 UF$_1$ | 25 October 1989 | list |
| (37569) 1989 UG | 23 October 1989 | list |
| (37570) 1989 UD$_1$ | 25 October 1989 | list |
| (37571) 1989 UE$_1$ | 25 October 1989 | list |
| (69274) 1989 UZ$_1$ | 29 October 1989 | list |

## Works

* Isobe, S., Atsuo, A., Asher, D., Fuse, T., Hashimoto, N., Nakano, S., K. Nishiyama, Yoshiaki Oshima, Noritsugu Takahashi, J. Terazono, H. Umehara, Takeshi Urata, Makoto Yoshikawa. "Educational program of Japan Spaceguard Association using asteroid search", Spaceguard Detective Agency, Proceedings of Asteroids, Comets, Meteors – ACM 2002. International Conference, 29 July – 2 August 2002