Cambridge, MA – An annual award of several thousand dollars for
discoveries of comets by amateur astronomers has just been announced
for the fifth consecutive year.

The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), part of the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, has announced the recipients of the 2003 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 five discoverers
will receive plaques and a cash award:

* Sebastian F. Hoenig of Dossenheim, Germany, for his visual
discovery of comet C/2002 O4 on 22 July 2002.

* Tetuo Kudo of Kikuchi, Kumamoto, Japan, and Shigehisa
Fujikawa of Mitoyo, Kagawa, Japan, for their independent visual
discoveries of comet C/2002 X5 on 12 and 13 December 2002.

* Charles W. Juels of Fountain Hills, Arizona, and Paulo R. C.
Holvorcem of Campinas, Brazil, for their joint charge-coupled-device
(CCD) electronic-camera discovery of comet C/2002 Y1 on 28 December
2002.

Comet C/2002 X5 is observer Fujikawa’s sixth credited comet
discovery. His first comet discovery came in 1969, more than three
decades ago. He is the only winner this year credited with previous
comet discoveries.

Co-discoverer Tetuo Kudo is a well-known astrophotographer in Japan
who started searching for comets some years ago. He discovered C/2002
X5 while he was waiting to finish an exposure.

Comet C/2002 O4 (Hoenig) is the first visual amateur comet discovery
from Germany since C/1946 K1 (Pajdusakova-Rotbart-Weber). Hoenig also
has detected nearly 20 comets in images from the Solar and
Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) satellite. More than 600 comets have
been found by SOHO over its 8 years of operation.

Comet C/2002 Y1 (Juels-Holvorcem) was discovered in the first night
of using a wide-field (2.3 x 2.3 degrees) camera on a 5-inch
refractor to search for bright objects. Juels and Holvorcem
collaborate over the internet with the help of “fast” ADSL
connections, which make it easy to communicate and transfer images in
near-real time between their homes in Arizona and Brazil,
respectively.

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.

In 2002, there were seven recipients of the Award. Of the 25 Award
recipients in the first five years, 15 have been for visual
discoveries, eight 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 (6), 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.

NOTE TO EDITORS: Images associated with this press release are
available at: http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/press/pr0317image.html

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 six 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.harvard.edu/iau/Headlines.html
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iauc/06900/06936.html

David Aguilar, Director of Public Affairs
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Phone: 617-495-7462 Fax: 617-495-7468
daguilar@cfa.harvard.edu

Christine Lafon
Public Affairs Specialist
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Phone: 617-495-7463, Fax: 617-495-7016
clafon@cfa.harvard.edu