Kin Endate (円館 金, Endate Kin, born December 15, 1960) is a Japanese amateur astronomer who has discovered hundreds of asteroids, most of them in collaboration with Kazuro Watanabe, placing him among the most prolific discoverers of minor planets.
[1] Kin Endate was born in Iwaizumi in Iwate Prefecture and went to Hokkaido Designers School to study photography.
He began taking astrophotos in high school, but did not begin serious asteroid observations until 1986.
[1][2] His notable discoveries include the minor planets 5648 Axius and 6500 Kodaira, a Jupiter trojan and the Mars-crosser, respectively.
[3][4] The main-belt asteroid 4282 Endate, discovered by his colleagues Seiji Ueda and Hiroshi Kaneda at Kushiro in 1987, was named in his honor.