Spacewatch
The Spacewatch project is an astronomical survey that specializes in the study of minor planets, including various types of asteroids and comets at Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona, in the United States. It is led by astronomer Robert S. McMillan at the University of Arizona and was founded in 1980 by Tom Gehrels and McMillan. Spacewatch uses the Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope and the Steward Observatory's Bok Telescope for follow-up observations of near-Earth objects. The Spacewatch Project uses four telescopes of apertures 0.9-m, 1.8-m, 2.3-m, and 4-m. These telescopes are  located on Kitt Peak mountain in Arizona, and all primarily serve the purpose of locating Near-Earth Objects (NEO). The 36 inch (0.9 meter) telescope at Kitt Peak observatory has been in use by Spacewatch since 1984, and since 2000 the 72 inch Spacewatch telescope. The 36 inch telescope continued in use and was further upgraded, in particular the telescopes use electronic detectors. Spacewatch's 1.8-meter telescope is the largest in the world that is used exclusively for asteroids and comets. It can find asteroids and comets anywhere from the space near Earth to regions beyond the orbit of  Neptune and to do astrometry on the fainter of objects that are already known. The telescope is pointed on stars and tracked with a real time video camera at folded prime focus. First to use CCDs to survey the sky for comets and asteroids. When added it permitted faster coverage of the sky than the pre-2002 system. Each year, Spacewatch observes approximately 35 radar targets, 50 near-Earth objects (NEO), and 100 potential rendezvous destinations. From 2013 to 2016, Spacewatch observed half of all NEOs and potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) observed by anyone in that time. History. The 1.8 meter  Spacewatch telescope and its building on Kitt Peak were dedicated on June 7, 1997 for the purpose of finding previously unknown asteroids and comets. Since January 1 2003, Spacewatch has made ~2400 separate-night detections of Near-Earth Objects. There was an upgrade to the 0.9 meter which was funded by NASA and the Kirsch Foundation. The Spacewatch Project is the longest-running of all present programs of astrometry of solar system objects. Spacewatch in Action. Spacewatch conducted a survey that was received May 12, 2006, and accepted on November 13, 2006. This survey used data taken over 34 months  by the University of Arizona’s Spacewatch Project based at Steward Observatory, Kitt Peak. Spacewatch revisited the same sky area every three to seven nights in order to track cohorts of main-belt asteroids. This survey discovered one new large Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) and detected six others. This proved that new sweeps of the sky are productive even if they have been previously examined simply due to the complexities of running large surveys over many nights and variable conditions. Asteroids. Asteroids are considered to be minor planets. A minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the  Sun that is neither a planet nor exclusively classified as a comet. Asteroids vary in size. The largest known asteroid, Ceres, is 650 miles big. Near-Earth objects. A near-Earth object (NEO) is any small Solar System body whose orbit brings it into proximity with Earth.