Minor planet (5038), given the name "Overbeek" (MPC 41567) on 2000 Nov. 11 in honour of South African amateur astronomer Danie Overbeek (on the occasion of his eightieth birthday), was originally discovered by E. L. Johnson at the (then) Union Observatory in Johannesburg on 1948 May 31.

Then having the designation 1948 KF, the object was observed on five nights over the course of a month (MPC 170). It was then lost until 1983, when Ted Bowell identified (MPC 8209) it with 1983 HP, an object observed by him at the Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, on 1983 Apr. 18 (MPC 7929) and May 7 (MPC 8199).

With the availability also of observations made at the Oak Ridge Observatory on eight nights from late 1984 to early 1992 (MPC 9410, MPC 16530, MPC 19440, MPC 19631), the object was given the number (5038) on 1992 Feb 18 (MPC 19658), on the basis of an orbit solution, computed by Brian Marsden at the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Mass., from the 21 available observations.

The orbit of (5038) is quite eccentric (0.28) and moderately inclined (11 deg) to the ecliptic, with the object varying between heliocentric distances 1.66 and 2.96 AU with an orbital period of a little over 3.5 years, perihelion passages occurring in (for example) August 1948, September 1983 and April 2001.

The absolute magnitude of 14.1 corresponds to a size of some 4 to 9 km, the size being uncertain because of the object's unknown albedo. Sixty-four observations have so far been reported since the object was numbered, these having been made at the oppositions in mid-1997, late 1998 and early 2000. Observations will next be convenient during the second half of 2001, with opposition in September and the object then about magnitude 16.

Brian Fraser