My Astronomy Page

• PHOTOMETRY
• SPECTROSCOPY
• ASTROMETRY
• COSMOLOGY

My favorite Observatories

Royal Observatory at Uccle
European Southern Observatory
Observatory at Hoher List
Observatory at Rozhen (Bulgary)
Observatory at Haute Provence
Observatory at Piedade (Belo Horizonte, Brazil)
Observatory at Caussols (France)
Observatory at Palomar
Observatory at Venezuela
Observatory at Rio de Janeiro

Thank you for visiting my page at Angelfire. Please come back and visit again!

Comet Hyakutake observed at Uccle Observatory

During february 1996 we have used the Uccle-Schmidt (85/120), which has been armed with a Hi Sis 22 CCD-camera, to observe the bright comet Hyakutake (C/1996 B2). About 200 frames have been obtained.

Comet Hale-Bopp observed at Haute Provence

During March and April 1997, the extremely bright comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1) has been observed at the Observatory of Haute Provence. There we have used the "Grand Schmidt (60/90), armed with sensitized IIIa-J plates.

Hale-Bopp at Haute Provence

Strange Comet discovered at ESO

On August 7, 1996, Eric W. Elst (Royal Observatory, Uccle, Belgium) reported his discovery of a cometary image on mid-July exposures by Guido Pizarro with the 1.0-m ESO Schmidt telescope at the La Silla Observatory. Further ESO-Schmidt plates were then obtained, and on August 19, with the help of orbital computations by Brian Marsden (IAU Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams, Cambridge, Mass., USA), Elst was able to identify the object on them. Even though the orbit (Period=5.6 years; inclination = 1.4 deg; excentricity =0.17) is entirely characteristic of that of a main-belt minor planet with the implied long-term orbital stability, the continued presence of a tail seemingly confirms the object as a 'comet'. The object now carries the designation 'Comet P/1996 N2 (Elst-Pizarro)' ESO Press Release (16 September 1996)

My book on asteroids, treating the discoveries from 1986-1991. There should follow a second one on my discoveries at the Observatory of Caussols (Southern France, near Grasse), during 1992-1997.

Latest research:

Last campaign with the ESO-Schmidt at La Silla

During February-October 1998 a last photographical observational campaign has been performed with the ESO-Schmidt, in order to discover new asteroids. The ESO-Schmidt has been demissioned at the end of 1998, reason why we have asked for the last time this excellent instrument. All observations (about 30 fields) have been obtained by Guido Pizarro on sensitized 4415 Kodak film. After investigating and measuring the films, here at the Observatory at Uccle, almost 1500 new asteroids have been discovered. Among them we count several new Phocaea-, Hungaria-, Hilda- and L5-Trojan-objects. In addition two new Apollo's, which had been discovered at other observatories, were recovered on our films. However from this final mission it became clear that photographical searches, even with larger Schmidt- telescopes, have had their best time, since they may not compete anymore with the faster and more extensive methods of CCD-observation.

Measuring the plates at the Zeiss-comparator

Numbering of Minor Planets during 1999

January 1999

February 1999

March 1999

April 1999

May 1999