Comet Section - Annual Report 2000
SOHO comets are the big story of
the session. The Director discovered
his first in September and by the end of the session had discovered five. These discoveries were totally eclipsed by
Michael Oates who discovered 46 in six months, mostly on archival imagery. For this work Michael received the Keedy
Award at the Exhibition Meeting. Cliff
Turk, a Section member from South Africa, was successful in his application for
a Ridley grant to purchase a CCD camera.
Comet discoveries were the
highest on record, with 98 found on SOHO imagery alone. Perhaps the most interesting of the SOHO
finds was 1997 K2, which was not seen elsewhere, though potentially it should
have been visible in moderate aperture telescopes to Southern Hemisphere
observers. Of the other 35 comets given
designations during the session, three were recoveries of periodic comets,
though one was accidental, three were new discoveries by amateurs of which two
were periodic and 29, of which thirteen were periodic, were new discoveries by
professionals. LINEAR found 19 with
other search teams discovering the majority of the remainder. The three periodic comets recovered at their
first return received new permanent numbers.
Several further asteroidal objects in unusual orbits were also
discovered.
Several binocular comets were on
view in the second half of 1999, but the first six months of 2000 were very
quiet and no comets were within range of Northern Hemisphere visual observers
for several months. Nearly 40 comets
have been observed by members, though only a few observers follow them when
fainter than 11th magnitude.
Light curves and observations of the better observed comets were
displayed at the Exhibition Meeting in June and are published in the Section
newsletter. Michael Oates exhibited a
laptop display of some of his SOHO comets at the Exhibition Meeting. A very successful second International
Workshop on Cometary Astronomy was held at New Hall, Cambridge in August 1999,
with many well-known comet discoverers in attendance. George Alcock attended the meeting and was given a standing
ovation.
Guy Hurst has continued to
publish the Section’s observations in The Astronomer magazine and they have
also appeared in the International Comet Quarterly. During the Director's absence in Antarctica from mid February to
the end of March he was able to enter further archival observations to the
database, which is nearing completion.
The remaining data requiring entry are observations of long period
comets from 1970 to 1980. Observations
submitted to the ICQ prior to 1990 also remain to be collated.
Papers on the comets of 1994 by
the Director and on comet Kohoutek 1973f by Michael Hendrie were published in
the Journal. Papers on the comets of
1995 and 1996 by the Director were accepted for publication. The Director prepared two issues of the
section newsletter ‘The Comet’s Tale’.
Exchanges of our newsletter with numerous overseas comet-observing
groups continued and many contribute their observations by e-mail. The Director helped several amateur and
professional astronomers and the media with research inquiries. The Section World Wide Web pages continue to
provide up to date information and are used by many observers and
professionals.
Jonathan
Shanklin
Director
Section Officials 1999 - 2000
Director Jonathan
Shanklin
Assistant
Director Guy
Hurst
CCD
Advisor Nick
James
Photograpic
Advisor Michael
Hendrie