Fifth comet discovered by amateur astronomer from Australia

Australian amateur astronomer for the fifth time discovered a new comet. This year, the seventeenth of August, he was once again lucky enough to discover a comet, which was later named Lovejoy C/2014 Q2.

To observe the stars Terry Lovejoy (Terry Lovejoy) set up a real observatory on the roof of his house, where he installed a telescope equipped with a CCD camera, with which he discovered another celestial body, previously unknown. His past “merits” include open comets: Lovejoy (C/2011 W3), which came much closer to our planet – only one hundred and forty thousand kilometers, and struck observers by what suddenly became unusually bright last November. It could be seen with the naked eye.



As a rule, Lovejoy takes three pictures of the starry sky, then proceeds to search for moving objects, using a special program. They often check the results manually. He often sees either comets and asteroids or false alarms.

But, this time, in the field of view of an amateur astronomer got a blurred object located in the constellation of Porma, emitting faint light. As it turned out, he was an unknown comet scientist. To accurately determine the orbit of a celestial body, additional observations are necessary.

According to preliminary calculations, which were conducted on the basis of twenty-four observations at the Center for Small Planets, scientists expect perihelion next year, in February. Then from the Sun discovered comet will be 265 million kilometers. And it will approach the Earth at a distance of one hundred and fifty million kilometers a month earlier.

Source: planetologia.ru/