Asteroid to back Ennio Morricone's Oscar bid

(updates previous).
    (ANSA) - Rome, February 5 - An asteroid discovered by Italian stargazers is to back the Oscar bid of veteran and celebrated Italian film composer Ennio Morricone for Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight. Discovered in Italy by amateur astronomers from the observatory of Campo Catino near Frosinone, asteroid 2005QP51 is now called 'Morricone' after the OK of the international agency in charge of naming small outer space bodies, the Minor Planet center. The diameter is of some 2 km and it was discovered in August 27, 2005, by Franco Mallia and Alain Maury. It is located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
    Naming it after Morricone, the Union of Italian Astrophiles (UAI) is supporting the composer's Oscar candidature for his soundtrack in Tarantino's latest and eighth movie.
    The proposal of UAI and the observatory in the province of Frosinone, to dedicate the asteroid to the Italian composer, was accepted by the Minor Planet Center because, as stressed in the motivation, he is "one of the most famous soundtrack composers of the century, with a production of over 500 soundtracks over the past decades".
    Ahead of the Academy Awards ceremony scheduled on February 28 in Los Angeles, it is possible to try to observe the asteroid 152188-Morricone, which shines with a magnitude of 15.7 and can be seen with telescopes of a diameter of some 30-40 centimeters.
    Scilian-born Morricone, 87, has been nominated for six Oscars but has only won an honorary Oscar for career achievement, in 2007.
    That award was collected by Tarantino.