Polish amateur astronomers find new comet
PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea
27.03.2015 15:32
A new comet in our solar system has been discovered by a group of amateur astronomers with a telescope in Chile.
Photo: cc/Flickr.com/Andy Roberts
The results were published on Friday, although the comet was first observed on 23 March.
The comet has been named C/2015 F2 (Polonia), and was discovered by Marcin Gędek, an entrepreneur, Michał Kusiak (a student of astronomy), Rafał Reszelewski (a high-school student) and Michał Żołnowski (a doctor).
The four discovered the comet via “CCD images taken on 23 March, 2015, with a remote-controlled 0.1-m f/5 astrograph of the Polonia Observatory at San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, in the course of their comet-search program,” Sott.net said in a statement.
“Hunting for comets is a quite complex and tedious process,” Michał Kusiak was quoted by Polish Radio as saying, adding that 23 March was an “exciting day” for the astronomers.
Photo: Remanzacco Observatory
“Initially, there were technical difficulties, and despite the fact that the observatory is in the desert, we had a serious fear of weather problems. But everything worked out extremely well.
“On Monday afternoon, when [we observed the images] and saw the comet, it was unusual and difficult to describe. Stress was mixed with euphoria, excitement and reflection.” (rg)