Home Page       Sat Aug 16 13:20:21 JST 1997

Discovery of new objects

The substance of astronomy is to observe objects and understand their characters. Discovering new objects is an important step for it. However, to discover a new object, patrolling for a long term and of wide area is required. It cannot be completed by only astronomical scholars. Actually many amateurs are working on it and obtaining good results now.

The process of the discovery consists of the two situations.

• Moving objects
  Comets, asteroids and so in the solar system is close to the earth and they moves among the stars. Therefore the way is to detect moving objects with comparing two pictures taken with some interval.
• Variable objects
  Novae, supernovae and so is caused by the star's explosion. So these objects do not move. Therefore the way is to detect objects which change their brightness with comparing two pictures taken with some interval.

Anyway, it is necessary to take some pictures of the same area with some interval. But it is not easy, especially for amateurs. Because of the weather and job schedules, etc., sometimes they could not take the second picture, or even if they did it, they could not have time to compare the two pictures.