Neptune

LUWD #0036 A Decade of Comets, William Bradfield, Dr. Brian Marsden, Neptune

On: September 8, 2020

William Bradfield of Australia get used to his name; he discovered 10 of the 33 comets covered in A Decade of Comets. DON MACHHOLZContinue Reading

LUWD #0003 – Star Magnitudes And A Comet That Almost Got Away

By: Donald Machholz

On: January 21, 2020

Venus dances with Neptune, the magnitude scale explained, a new faint comet and let’s look at a bright comet. Podcast 3 Star Map 1 Podcast 3 Star Map 2 Podcast 3 Star Map 1 Podcast 3 Comet Hunting for 2020, Hours and CometsContinue 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]

Machholz is considered to be one of the inventors of the Messier marathon, which is a race to observe all the Messier objects in a single night.

Neptune

LUWD #0036 A Decade of Comets, William Bradfield, Dr. Brian Marsden, Neptune

LUWD #0003 – Star Magnitudes And A Comet That Almost Got Away

Stargazer Arizona Observatory

Donald Edward Machholz

Homemade 29×130 Binoculars