[meteorite-list] 2002 Comet Awards Announced

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:00:04 2004
Message-ID: <200207021712.KAA17325_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/press/pr0217.html

 Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
 Press Release No.: 02-17
 For Release: July 1, 2002

                         2002 COMET AWARDS ANNOUNCED

 Cambridge, MA -- Want some quick money in these days of WorldCom and
 Enron? Go and find a comet! An annual award of several thousand dollars
 for discoveries of comets by amateur astronomers has just been announced
 for the fourth consecutive year.

 The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), part of the
 Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
 has announced the recipients of the 2002 Edgar Wilson Award for the
 discovery of comets by amateurs during the calendar year ending June 10.
 The award was set aside as part of the will bequeathed by the late
 businessman Edgar Wilson of Lexington, Kentucky, and administered by the
 SAO. The following seven discoverers will receive plaques and a cash
 award:

    * Vance Avery Petriew of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, for his visual
      discovery of comet P/2001 Q2 on 2001 August 18.
    * Kaoru Ikeya of Mori, Shuchi, Shizuoka, Japan, and Daqing Zhang,
      Kaifeng, Henan province, China, for their independent visual
      discoveries of comet C/2002 C1 on 2002 February 1.
    * Douglas Snyder of Palominas, Arizona, and Shigeki Murakami of
      Matsunoyama, Niigata, Japan, for their independent visual discoveries
      of comet C/2002 E2 on 2002 March 11.
    * Syogo Utsunomiya of Minami-Oguni, Aso, Kumamoto, Japan, for his
      visual discovery of comet C/2002 F1 on 2002 March 18.
    * William Kwong Yu Yeung of Benson, Arizona for his
      charge-coupled-device (CCD) electronic-camera discovery of comet
      P/2002 BV.

 Observers Ikeya and Utsunomiya have had their names attached to comets
 previously. Comet C/2002 F1 was Utsunomiya's third named comet; he also
 won the Edgar Wilson Award in 2001 for C/2000 W1 (Utsunomiya-Jones). Ikeya
 became world-famous in the 1960s for a string of five comet discoveries
 between 1963 and 1967, with comet C/1965 S1 (Ikeya-Seki) becoming likely
 the brightest comet of the last century -- visible in broad daylight to
 the unaided eye as it skimmed closely by the sun's surface in October
 1965.

 At the beginning of the 17th century, Johannes Kepler thought there were
 more comets in the skies than there were fish in the seas. Many other
 people then still clung to the view of malevolent visitors bent on
 mischief prowling through the earth's atmosphere, whereby comets were seen
 as harbingers of doom, creators of earthquakes, disasters, famine, defeat
 in battles and deaths of kings. Going back to ancient times, the sudden
 appearance of comets, their enormous size, and their just-as-sudden
 departures raised superstitious fears wherever they were observed.

 Hundreds of comets were observed and recorded before the invention of the
 telescope in 1609, and the number of discoveries soared when
 better-quality telescopes came into use in the 18th century. Armed with
 small instruments that pale in comparison to ones available to amateur
 astronomers today, the race to discover new comets and gain recognition
 and fame began.

 Nicknamed the "Ferret of Comets" by the King of France in the 1760s,
 Charles Messier became one of the most famous comet hunters of all time.
 He just missed the recovery of Halley's comet in December 1758 at its
 first predicted return, but for the next fifteen years, nearly all comet
 discoveries were made by Messier. It was rumored that he may have been
 even more upset over the discovery of a comet by a rival while he was
 attending his dying wife than he was over her death.

 Nearly two hundred years have passed since the comet discoveries of
 Messier. Today amateur astronomers continue to discover new comets that
 may bear their names for eternity. Fighting increasing light pollution and
 competition from sophisticated professional observatories, the challenges
 and rewards have become even greater. There have been numerous comet
 awards over the centuries, but the Wilson Award is currently the largest
 publicly known award.

 The six visual discoveries of this past year involved four different
 comets and represent the most new comets discovered by visual observers
 since 1994. Automated CCD searches with large professional telescopes have
 dominated comet discovery since 1998. Utsunomiya's discovery was made with
 large 25x150 binoculars (having lenses with diameters of 6 inches). The
 other discoveries were all made with moderate-sized reflecting telescopes
 having mirrors with diameters ranging from 10 to 20 inches.

 Yeung's discovery image was obtained on 2002 January 21, but he reported
 the object initially as stellar in appearance and it was given a
 minor-planet (rather than cometary) designation; CCD images taken by
 Timothy Spahr at the SAO station on Mount Hopkins in Arizona in early May
 showed that P/2002 BV was indeed cometary with a faint tail, and Yeung's
 object was announced as a comet on May 9 (IAU Circular 7896).

 The brightest comet of the bunch, C/2002 C1 (Ikeya-Zhang) , became a faint
 naked-eye object this past March and April for northern-hemisphere
 observers, and is of special interest because it is the first return of
 this comet to the inner solar system in 341 years, since it was last
 observed in 1661. Carefully made observations in February and March 1661
 by the Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius have allowed astronomers to
 confirm that the two apparitions belong to the same comet, though for
 centuries it was speculated erroneously that the 1661 comet might be
 identical with a comet seen in 1532. Comet C/2002 C1 is now the comet with
 the longest orbital period that has been definitely seen at two or more
 returns to perihelion (closest approach to the sun). The famous Halley's
 comet orbits the sun roughly once every 76 years.

 In 2001, there were only two recipients of the Award, for their
 independent visual discoveries of a single comet (Albert Jones of New
 Zealand and Syogo Utsunomiya). Of the 20 Award recipients in the first
 four years, twelve have been for visual discoveries, seven for discoveries
 from CCD images, and one for a discovery from a photograph. The countries
 with the most recipients so far are the United States (5), Japan (4), and
 Australia (4). In years when there are no eligible comet discoverers, the
 Award is made instead to amateur astronomers judged by the Central Bureau
 for Astronomical Telegrams (CBAT) to have made important contributions
 toward observing comets or promoting an interest in the study of comets.

 Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center
 for Astrophysics (CfA) is a joint collaboration between the Smithsonian
 Astrophysical Observatory and the Harvard College Observatory. CfA
 scientists organized into seven research divisions study the origin,
 evolution, and ultimate fate of the universe.

 For more information:

 http://cfa -www.harvard.edu/iau/special/EdgarWilson.html
 http://cfa-www.harva rd.edu/iau/Headlines.html
 http://cfa-www.ha rvard.edu/iauc/06900/06936.ht ml

 David A. Aguilar
 Director of Public Affairs
 Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
 617-495-7462
 daguilar_at_cfa.harvard.edu

 Christine Lafon
 Public Affairs Specialist
 Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
 Phone: 617-495-7463, Fax: 617-495-7016
 clafon_at_cfa.harvard.edu
Received on Tue 02 Jul 2002 01:12:47 PM PDT