Donald Edward Machholz (October 7, 1952 – August 9, 2022) was an American amateur astronomer who was credited with the discovery of 12 comets that bear his name.

Personal life and death

In 2014, he married photojournalist Michele Machholz. They resided at the Stargazer Ranch in Wikieup, Arizona. Machholz died in the early morning of August 9, 2022, at his home in Wikieup, Arizona, from complications of COVID-19. His obituary at Astronomy stated, "In the years leading up to his death, Machholz was considered the most prolific visual comet discoverer alive."

Career

He spent more than 9,000 hours comet hunting in a career spanning over 50 years. These comets include the periodic comets 96P/Machholz, 141P/Machholz, the non-periodic C/2004 Q2 (Machholz) that were visible with binoculars in the northern sky in 2004 and 2005, C/2010 F4 (Machholz), and C/2018 V1 (Machholz-Fujikawa-Iwamoto) In 1985, comet Machholz 1985-e, was discovered using a homemade cardboard telescope with a wide aperture, 10 inches across, that gave it a broader field of view than most commercial telescopes. Machholz utilized a variety of methods in his comet discoveries, in 1986 using 29×130 binoculars he discovered 96P/Machholz. Machholz was one of the inventors of the Messier Marathon, which is a race to observe all the Messier objects in a single night. Asteroid 245983 Machholz, discovered by Kazimieras Černis, was named in honor of Machholz in November 2017.

Comets discovered

Awards and honors

Books

General references