Abstract

We describe the discovery circumstances and photometric properties of 2000 EB(173), now one of the brightest trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) with opposition magnitude m(R) = 18.9 and also one of the largest Plutinos, found with the drift-scanning camera of the Quasar Equatorial Survey Team, attached to the 1 m Schmidt telescope of the National Observatory of Venezuela. We measure B-V = 0.99 +/- 0.14 and V-R = 0.57 +/- 0.05, a red color observed for many fainter TNOs. At our magnitude limit m(R) = 20.1 +/- 0.20, our single detection reveals a sky density of 0.915(-0.012)(+0.034) TNOs per square degree (the error bars are 68% confidence limits), consistent with fainter surveys showing a cumulative number proportional to 10(0.5mR). Assuming an inclination distribution of TNOs with FWHM exceeding 30 degrees, it is likely that 100 to several hundred objects brighter than m(R) = 20.1 remain to be discovered.