Summary: Welcome to CometWatch! Your Hosts are Nick Evetts, Neil Norman & Mary Spicer.<br> This Month we are joined by Terry Lovejoy, Justin Tilbrook & Michael Mattiazzo and we discuss The History of Comet Hunting<br> <a href="http://www.britastro.org/section_front/10" target="_blank">BAA Comet Section page</a><br> <a href="http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/%7Ejds/" target="_blank">BAA Comet Section Visual Observations Page</a><br> <a href="http://www.britastro.org/projectalcock/" target="_blank">Project Alcock</a><br> <a href="http://kometen.fg-vds.de/fgk_hpe.htm" target="_blank">The German Comet Group</a><br> <a href="http://www.aerith.net/comet/weekly/current.html" target="_blank">Seiichi Yoshida’s page</a><br> <a href="http://cometobservations.freeservers.com" target="_blank">Liga Iberoamericana de Astronomia</a><br> <a href="http://cometchasing.skyhound.com/" target="_blank">Comet chasing in September</a><br> <a href="http://www.icq.eps.harvard.edu/CometMags.html" target="_blank">International Comet Quarterly</a><br> <a href="http://cometbase.net/" target="_blank">CometBase</a><br> The Notes Used for the Show<br> Charles Messier.<br><br> Born; 26/06/1730<br><br> Died; 12/04/1817<br> Discoverer of 13 comets with only a basic telescope that had a mirror made with speculum (glass wasn’t used until the 1850’s), and an aperture of 5 inches.<br> He became interested in comets after seeing the Great Comet of 1744 ( C/1743 X1).<br><br> During his career he observed 44 of the possible 50 comets to appear between 1758-1806.<br> Lewis Swift.<br> Born; 29/02/1820<br><br> Died; 05/01/1913<br> Also discovered 13 comets and became interested in comets after seeing the Great Comet of 1843.<br><br> In 1857 he obtained some astronomy books, and with the instructions in one of them, he made a 3 inch scope. The mirror was accidentally broken , so he brought a 4 inch “Comet Seeker ” telescope.<br><br> His most notable discovery was 109P/ Swift-Tuttle , the parent of the Perseid meteor shower.<br> Edward Emerson Barnard.<br><br> Born; 16/12/1857<br><br> Died; 06/02/1923<br> Discovered his first comet in 1881, yet failed to report it!<br><br> He purchased a 5 inch telescope in 1876 , and went on to discover 16 comets in total.<br><br> In 1892 he discovered D/1892 T1, the first to be discovered photographically.<br> William Robert Brooks.<br><br> Born; 11/06/1844<br><br> Died;<br> Was nicknamed “Eagle Eyes”, a name well deserved with 27 comet discoveries.<br><br> He was born in England but moved to the U.S in 1857.<br><br> Founded the Red House Observatory,Phelps,N.Y, 1874, where he discovered 11 comets.<br><br> He went on to discover another 16 comets (mostly with his 5 inch telescope).<br> Jean-Louis Pons.<br><br> Born; 24/12/1761<br><br> Died; 14/10/1831<br> The most successful visual comet discoverer of all time with 37 finds.<br><br> This said,
