Steward is asteroid #15371 and also known as 1996 RZ₁₈. Steward measures 4.8 km in diameter. Steward’s orbit is characterized by a semi-major axis of 3.00 Astronomical Units, an eccentricity of 0.11, a period of revolution of 1’896 days, and an inclination of 0.7 degrees. Steward was discovered at the Kitt Peak Observatory during the course of the University of Arizona’s still ongoing Spacewatch Project, which is based at the Steward Observatory (on the University of Arizona’s campus, yet operating telescopes also at other observatories like Catalina Station, Mount Lemmon Observatory, or Kitt Peak Observatory), Tucson, Arizona, USA.

Steward is named after the Steward Observatory, which is the research arm of the astronomy department of the University of Arizona. The Steward Observatory partakes in many partnered projects, so operates telescopes at other observatories. Five of them at mountain-top locations in Arizona, one in New Mexico, one in Hawaii, and one in Chile. Its own observatory dome in Tucson is used for undergraduate education and public outreach, not for research anymore. On the campus in Tucson, Arizona, USA are furthermore the Steward Observatory’s office and a branch of the Vatican Observatory located. The Steward Observatory shares telescopes with the Vatican Observatory on Mount Graham in Arizona. The probably most important facility of the Steward Observatory produces large primary mirrors for the large telescopes built in the early 21st century. Only few organizations are able to do this.

In 1906, the American astronomer and dendrochronologist Andrew Ellicott Douglass accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Physics and Geography at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona, USA. He immediately tried to establish an astronomy research department. But he failed in getting it funded until Mrs. Lavinia Steward, the wealthy widow of the oatmeal manufacturer Henry B. Steward, in 1916 donated sixty-thousand US Dollars for a telescope. She thus funded the construction of a 36-inch reflecting telescope, which was the first of its kind built entirely with American products.

The asteroid Steward astrologically represents mirror manufacturers. I doubt that a better celestial representative for mirror manufacturers could be found if an additional representative could be found at all. The profession of stewards on the other hand is represented by the asteroid Stuart, that otherwise would lack a task except representing persons named Stuart. Steward naturally can also represent persons and places named Steward.