There's a bit of a stir going 'round about the discovery of the mini-planet which was the subject of an article in the June '97 issue of Nature. Here's its horoscope . . . As yet unnamed, the little body is called 1996TL66 for now. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Minor Planet Center cites the first observation of 1996TL66 as 1996 October 9.56206 UT, which figures out to 13h 29m 22s UT (1:29:22 PM GMT) on October 9, 1996. This initial sighting was made by Jane Luu, Dave Jewitt and a couple of Jewitt’s students at the University of Hawaii’s Mauna Kea Observatory, according to the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. A chart calculated for these data - OCT 09, 1996, 01:29:22 PM GMT, 155W40, 20N01 (using coordinates for Kamuela, the town nearest the Mauna Kea summit) - features a moon-Venus conjunction rising in Virgo. (1996TL66 was at 3 Taurus when discovered, square Uranus in this chart; also in a yod to Mercury and Pluto.) My friend and colleague Zane Stein is paying particular attention to the new little planet - see his page on this for more. For a monthly 1900-2001 ephemeris of the icy miniplanet, see Zane's 1996 TL66 table. (Note: Unfortunately, the Stein pages are Geocities sites, with annoying pop-up ads.)