astronomy podcast

LUWD #0046 “A Decade of Comets” Conclusion

By: Donald Machholz

On: November 16, 2020

That is a lot of time to find a comet, but then there is a lot of sky to cover! DON MACHHOLZContinue Reading

LUWD #0034 Visual Comet Discovery, Dr. Edgar Everhart

By: Donald Machholz

On: August 25, 2020

This is the type of study that helped to direct comet hunters where to search. DON MACHHOLZContinue Reading

LUWD #0027 Astronomical Observatories, Comet NEOWISE, Scorpius, M4

By: Donald Machholz

On: July 6, 2020

“Comet NEOWISE stuck its head out from behind the sun and smiled at us.” DON MACHHOLZContinue Reading

is an American amateur astronomer, who is number one in the world for visual comet discoveries. Credited with the discovery of 12 comets, that include the periodic comets 96P/Machholz, 141P/Machholz, the non-periodic C/2004 Q2 (Machholz) that were visible with binoculars in the northern sky in 2004 and 2005, C/2010 F4 (Machholz), and most recently C/2018 V1 (Machholz-Fujikawa-Iwamoto) ^[1]^[2] In 1985, comet Machholz 1985-e, was discovered using a homemade cardboard telescope with a wide aperture, 10 inches across, that gave it a broader field of view than most commercial telescopes.^[3] Amateur astronomer Machholz utilizes a variety of methods in his comet discoveries, in 1986 using 29×130 binoculars he discovered 96P/Machholz.^[4]