Station

Kin Endate (円館 金, Endate Kin, born December 15, 1960) is a Japanese amateur astronomer who has discovered 614 asteroids (571 with Kazuro Watanabe and 43 separately ), placing him among the most prolific discoverers of minor planets. His discoveries include the Trojan asteroid (5648) 1990 VU1 and the Mars-crossing asteroid 6500 Kodaira. He also recorded the first known precovery images of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with his private 10-inch (25 cm) diameter telescope on March 15, 1993, ten days before the official discovery of the comet. Kin, who was looking specifically for asteroids, did not know of the comet in his images until after the official discovery.

Two asteroids have been named in his honor: 4282 Endate after him, and 4460 Bihoro after the city in which he lives.