发现的故事，英文的，就当锻炼下吧
Machholz Discovers 11th Comet!
During the early-morning hours of March 23, Don Machholz was positioned behind the eyepiece of his trusty 18" Dobsonian telescope, scanning the eastern sky, when something unusual caught his eye. Don recounts the story:
"I picked up the fuzzy object while sweeping in azimuth, and looked up at my tiny control box with electronic setting circle output. It is attached right above my eyepiece. It said, "Searching Data," meaning there was nothing in its database in that area. That piqued my interest. I then turned to my list of comets that I keep with me from this site www.aerith.net. (I print the first 4 of the 8 pages, as I only need to go to mag 14 or so). I paged through the comets and saw there were none known to be in the area. I then had to re-find the comet (my telescope has no clock drive) which is important, because it tells me that I was seeing something real, not a reflection or something. And that it was bright enough to find twice. But this second time I did have the RA and Dec in my mind, so it wasn't that hard. But upon looking into the eyepiece, my eye was drawn back to the object. Always a good sign.
I looked at the clock. It was about 5:40 so estimated the time of discovery at 5:37 AM. Only my dog, a yellow lab, was with me, lying in the observatory. I did not have time to wake my family as twilight was approaching.
I got out my star atlas and made sure that I could cross reference the area on that atlas. I put an "x" on the map where it was, and believed that I had nailed down the position very well.
I switched eyepieces and could still see the object, so it was not a reflection. The eyepiece is 16.7 mm, and with a barlow it gave me 270x. I also believed I used it at 135x too. But at this higher power I drew another drawing. I then made a second drawing of it, this one under high power, to see if it would show any motion.
Within 5 minutes it vanished in the advancing twilight.
I closed up the telescope and went into the house. I told my wife what had happened, and then took a shower, getting ready for the day. It was at that time that I decided to report it at this time, even without seeing any motion, rather than keeping it to myself until I saw it a second night and got motion.
I checked The Sky astronomy software program and saw nothing, but saw the pattern of stars near where the comet was. I then went to the CBAT web site and ran a search for any comets within one degree of the discovery site. None were returned in the search. I then downloaded from the web a deep photo of the area, to see if a small group of stars was in the area, there was none.
I stayed on the CBAT (Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams) website and checked "How to Report a Discovery." After all, it had been nearly six years since my last find. I drafted a letter to the CBAT, and sent it to them. Within a few minutes I had a reply from Dan Green, saying thanks for the note and he hoped that all was well."
Clouds obscured the sky the next two nights, making the confirmation of the object as a comet impossible. But finally, on the morning of March 26, Don was able to track down the comet again and confirm its movement through space, estimating a progression of two degrees per day. A few hours later, the SAO officially confirmed the comet, christening it C/2010 F4 (Machholz).
Machholz's find came 607 hours since his last discovery of C/2004 Q2 (Machholz) on August 27, 2004. In his quest for comets, he has performed 7654.25 hours of systematic comet hunting since he began on January 1, 1975.
Machholz is the #1 visual comet hunter in the United states, having visually discovered eleven comets that bear his name. His standing in the world is only surpassed by Australia's William Bradfield, who has 18 finds. |
置顶卡
变色卡
千斤顶
显身卡