Claudine Rinner (born 1965) is a French amateur astronomer from Ottmarsheim in Alsace, France. She is an observer at Ottmarsheim Observatory (224) and a discoverer of minor planets and comets, who received the Edgar Wilson Award for her discoveries.^[2][3]

Career

Participant in the Morocco Oukaimeden Sky Survey (MOSS), Rinner discovered three comets using a 0.5-metre robotic telescope at Oukaïmeden Observatory located in Morocco. She won the 2013 Edgar Wilson Award for discovering three comets which were designated 373P/Rinner (P/2011 W2),^[4] C/2012 CH₁₇ (MOSS),^[5] and 281P/MOSS (P/2013 CE₃₁).^[6] Rinner is also credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of more than 100 minor planets since 2004, including several co-discoveries with François Kugel (see list below).^[1]

Awards and honors

The asteroid 23999 Rinner, discovered by French amateur astronomer Laurent Bernasconi in 1999, was named in her honor.^[2] The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 21 July 2005 (M.P.C. 54566).^[7]

In 2020, she and Michel Ory jointly received the Dorothea Klumpke – Isaac Roberts prize from the Société astronomique de France.^[8]

Discoveries

List of discovered minor planets

Some of Claudine Rinner's discoveries were made in collaboration with ^A François Kugel