Atlas

LUWD #0066 A Planet Primer

By: Donald Machholz

On: April 7, 2021

Take one planet a day and I’ll see you next week. – Don MachholzContinue Reading

LUWD #0010 – Electric Socks, Three Comets and the Messier Marathon

By: Donald Machholz

On: March 9, 2020

Electric Socks, Three Comets and the Messier MarathonContinue 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]