This minor planet was named by the discoverer Cyril Jackson after his birthplace, the market town of Ossett, located in West Yorkshire, England (also see 2193 Jackson).[3] The official naming citation was mentioned in The Names of the Minor Planets by Paul Herget in 1955 (H 115).[3] While the naming citation reads that Deira is the ancient name for his birthplace, the Celtic Kingdom of Deira was actually much larger, encompassing at its height most of Yorkshire in Northern England.
In March 2011, a rotational lightcurve of Deira was obtained from photometric observations by Julian Oey at his Leura Observatory (E17) in Australia. Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 210.6 hours with a brightness variation of 0.5 magnitude (U=2),[a] while Oey previously published a slightly longer period of 217.1 hours and an amplitude of 0.6 magnitude (U=n.a.).[b] This makes Deira one of the Top 300 slow rotators known to exist.
Spin axis
In 2016, an international study modeled a lightcurve with a concurring period of 216.98 hours and found two spin axis of (314.0°, −46.0°) and (107.0°, −56.0°) in ecliptic coordinates (λ, β).[15]
Diameter and albedo
According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, the Japanese Akari satellite and the NEOWISE mission of NASA's WISE telescope, Deira measures between 28.816 and 35.19 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.03 and 0.0557.[7][8][9][10][11][12][13]
The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.0465 and a diameter of 30.89 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 11.5.[17]
Notes
^ abOey (2011) LCDB. (1244) Deira – rotation period 210.6±0.1 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.50±0.03 mag. Quality code of 2. Summary figures at the LCDB.
^ abOey (2007) website. (1244) Deira – rotation period 217.1±0.1 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.60±0.05 mag. No quality code. Lightcurve-plot and summary figures at the archived Leura Observatory website. Astronomers comment: "The data is re-reduced with Canopus 9.5 Comp Star Selector feature. Linkage over the 2.5 months period showing a main period of 217h. Slow rotator with deviation from the mean due to Psyn-sid and tumbling characteristics."
^ abcdUsui, Fumihiko; Kuroda, Daisuke; Müller, Thomas G.; Hasegawa, Sunao; Ishiguro, Masateru; Ootsubo, Takafumi; et al. (October 2011). "Asteroid Catalog Using Akari: AKARI/IRC Mid-Infrared Asteroid Survey". Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan. 63 (5): 1117–1138. Bibcode:2011PASJ...63.1117U. doi:10.1093/pasj/63.5.1117. (online, AcuA catalog p. 153)