We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
The period of 1933–59 brought forth several improvements in the study of comets, which led to more discoveries and longer periods of visibility. The greatest advances came in the area of telescopes and photography.
Comet discoveries
The USA continued its dominance in discovering comets during this period, with amateur and professional astronomers being given official credit for 60 discoveries. Following the USA were South Africa (24 discoveries), Slovakia (19 discoveries), Japan (9 discoveries), Russia (8 discoveries), and Finland (7 discoveries).
The most prolific comet discoverer of this period was A. Mrkos (Slovakia), who found 11 new comets. Next in line were M. Honda (Japan) and L. C. Peltier (USA), who each found 7 new comets, M. J. Bester (South Africa), who found 6, and R. Burnham Jr. (USA) and D. du Toit (South Africa), who each found 5. Honda and Peltier were both amateur astronomers, while Burnham discovered comets as both an amateur and a professional astronomer.
Another important point concerning comets discovered during this period was that many were found during surveys. The most successful were the National Geographic–Palomar Observatory Sky Survey, which found 11 comets during the period of 1949–55, and the Skalnaté Pleso binocular comet search program, which found 19 comets during the period of 1948–59.
Comet observations
Several very active comet observers mentioned in Cometography volume 3 continued to observe during most, if not all, of the period covered by this volume. The most notable include G. van Biesbroeck, H. M. Jeffers, and M. Beyer.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
