We describe the discovery circumstances and photometric properties of 2000 EB173 , 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 QUEST Collaboration , attached to the 1-m Schmidt telescope of the National Observatory of Venezuela .
We measure B - V = 0.99 \pm 0.14 and V - R = 0.57 \pm 0.05 , a red color observed for many fainter TNOs .
At our magnitude limit m _ { R } = 20.1 \pm 0.20 , our single detection reveals a sky density of 0.015 ( +0.034 , -0.012 ) TNOs per deg ^ { 2 } ( the error bars are 68 \% confidence limits ) , consistent with fainter surveys showing a cumulative number proportional to 10 ^ { 0.5 m _ { R } } .
Assuming an inclination distribution of TNOs with FWHM exceeding 30 deg , it is likely that one hundred to several hundred objects brighter than m _ { R } = 20.1 remain to be discovered .