observers notebook By Rebecca A.
Johnson
The New Wilson Comet Award
n amateur comet hunter in Aus-
A tralia is the first person to qualify
for the newly established Edgar
Wilson Award. On August 11th the Inter-
national Astronomical Union (IAU) an-
nounced that Peter Williams of Heath-
cote, New South Wales, had discovered a
13th-magnitude comet the night before.
Williams used a 0.30-meter reflector for
the visual discovery. At the time, Comet
C/1998 P1 was in the southern constella-
tion Triangulum Australe near the bor-
der of Circinus.
Last June the IAU announced the es-
tablishment of the Edgar Wilson Award,
Monthly Sunspot Numbers
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Dec '97 Feb 98 Apr Jun Aug
Pierre Cugnon of the Sunspot Index Data Center supplied
these provisional sunspot numbers. The range of minimum and
maximum daily numbers (vertical lines) and monthly means
(connected points) are shown for the nine most recent months.
There are also three months of predictions. Daily numbers are
available at http://www.oma.be/KSB-ORB/SIDC/index.html.
an endowed cash prize for amateur com-
et discoverers (August issue, page 27).
Edgar Wilson, a businessman from Lex-
ington, Kentucky, died in 1976. His life-
long interest in astronomy and desire to
promote the hobby led him to bequeath
the prize in his will. Other stipulations in
the will delayed establishing the award
until recently. Administered by the Cen-
tral Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
(CBAT), the prize of as much as $20,000
annually will be divided equally among
all comet-finders in each year beginning
June 11th, 0h UT.
Theres plenty of time left for others to
earn a share of this years
award, which will be pre-
sented in July 1999. Only
amateur astronomers, or
professionals acting in an
amateur capacity at the
time of discovery, can
claim the prize. Discover-
ies must be made with
amateur equipment and
Oct can be visual, photograph-
ic, or electronic. Discover-
ies made using materials
prepared by others, such as
sky surveys, do not qualify.
Any comet discoverer
acting alone, whose name
1998 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.
EUROPEAN SOUTHERN OBSERVATORY
This two-minute exposure of Comet Williams
was taken August 11th with the 1.54-meter
Danish Telescope at the European Southern
Observatory at La Silla, Chile. A faint plasma
tail is visible on the lower-left (south-south-
east) side of the coma and extends out of the
13-arcminute-wide field.
is given to a comet, is eligible for one
share of the total prize money for that
year. A comet-discovery team would re-
ceive only one share. Of course, new
comet finds must be reported to CBAT in
the normal manner to make their discov-
erers eligible for the prize. Comet-report-
ing procedures are posted on the Inter-
net at http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/
CometDiscovery.html. Complete rules for
the Wilson Award can be found at
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/special/
EdgarWilson.html.
Rebecca A. Johnson served as Sky & Tele-
scopes 1998 summer intern.
Solar Activity
Jeffrey D. Law photographed this colorful au-
rora on the morning of last July 31st at Pent-
water, Michigan. Sightings of auroral displays
are likely to become more common as the
Suns activity continues to increase. Between
August 17th and 19th four X-ray flares oc-
curred within a sunspot group rounding the
Suns eastern limb. By the last week of August,
as the group became better placed on the face
of the Sun, it was visible to the naked eye.
Sky & Telescope November 1998 119