Dido (minor planet designation: 209 Dido) is a main-belt asteroid with a diameter of . It was discovered by C. H. F. Peters on October 22, 1879, in Clinton, New York and was named after the mythical Carthaginian queen Dido. This asteroid is orbiting the Sun at a distance of with an eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.058 and a period of . The orbital plane is tilted at an angle of 7.2° to the plane of the ecliptic. 209 Dido is classified as a C-type asteroid and is probably composed of carbonaceous materials. Like many asteroids of its type, it has an extremely low albedo. Photometric observations at the Palmer Divide Observatory during 2005 showed a rotation period of hours with a brightness variation of in magnitude. The pole orientation in ecliptic coordinates, as determined from multiple light curve studies, is (βp, λp) = (, ). References External links Lightcurve plot of 209 Dido, Palmer Divide Observatory, B. D. Warner (2005) Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB), query form (info ) Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, Google books Asteroids and comets rotation curves, CdR – Observatoire de Genève, Raoul Behrend Discovery Circumstances: Numbered Minor Planets (1)-(5000) – Minor Planet Center Background asteroids Dido Dido C-type asteroids (Tholen) Xc-type asteroids (SMASS) 18791022