A new astronomical publication has been added to our offer:
Downloaded from the website of the HUNGARIAN ASSOCIATION OF ARCHITECTURAL SCIENTISTS:
The Hungarian Astronomical Association has published a book by the authorsAkos Nagy Mélykuti and Krisztián Sárneczky entitledThis is how we saw the comet: C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE).
The year 2020 will be memorable for most people in many ways. The beginning of this year saw the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to many restrictions in our country and in many countries around the world. It was in the spring of the same year 2020, on 27 March to be precise, that a comet of only 18 magnitude was discovered on the NEOWISE infrared satellite, which was soon afterwards named C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE).
Hamar revealed that C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) may be the brightest comet in the northern sky since its 1997 brightening. True, two comets had already been reported that year, so many were sceptical. But as soon as the comet passed its sunspot on 7 July 2020, at a distance of 0.295 CSE, it quickly became clear that it could be so bright that it could be observed with the naked eye. It wasn't long before the first domestic sightings, including those by amateur astronomers, followed the foreign observations. The following month was almost all about observing this comet in astronomical circles.
The next month was all about observing this comet.
The aim of our book is to present and briefly summarise what we know about comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) in the context of this event, while the most extensive part of the book contains all the observations that have been received by the Hungarian Astronomical Society in some form (e.g. sighting upload page, electronic and traditional mail). We thank our fellow observers for their work!
On the front page: photo by Mónika Landy-Gyebnár.
