Loma Prieta

LUWD #0017 – Comet ATLAS, Comet SWAN, Arcturus, Loma Prieta, Moon in my mirror

On: April 28, 2020

Go out tonight to see Arcturus, Not as bright or blue as Sirius, It’s in Boötes you see, Above his left knee, A sight to behold for the curious DON MACHHOLZContinue Reading

LUWD #0016 – Comet ATLAS, Mizar, Alcor, Youngest Moon, and Loma Prieta

By: Donald Machholz

On: April 21, 2020

Unpredictable, inexplicable, once busted up, now busting out, gas and dust tail, small scale detail, written off as dead Apparently it was misread See Comet ATLAS, it is a splendid actress What will it do next week, take a sneak peek Will it be bright or bleak DON MACHHOLZContinue Reading

LUWD #0015 – Comet ATLAS, Lyrids, and Loma Prieta

By: Donald Machholz

On: April 14, 2020

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]