The Piszkéstető Station or Piszkéstető Mountain Station is an astronomical observatory in Mátraszentimre in Mátra Mountains, about 80 km northeast of Hungary's capital Budapest. It is a station of Konkoly Observatory, first built in 1958. It has the observatory code 461 and 561 for being used by the Szeged University and Konkoly Observatory, respectively.

Instruments

The observatory features four telescopes:

Discovery of Impactors

Piszkéstető Station discovered 3 of the first 8 impactors which were observed and confirmed while still in orbit:, 2023 CX1, and 2024 BX1. The asteroid 2022EB was only the fifth asteroid in history to have been discovered prior to impact. This puts the station in a very short list of observatories that have achieved this feat. Several asteroids impact earth every year with enough force to be detected by infrasound sensors designed to detect detonation of nuclear devices, but the vast majority of impacts are unpredicted and occur without warning. Piszkéstető Station discovered this asteroid before it impacted. 2023 CX1 was discovered at the station on February 12, 2023 and impacted the Earth off the coast of Normandy, France. 2024 BX1 was discovered at the station a few hours before it entered the Earth's atmosphere near Berlin on January 21, 2024.

Honors

The minor planet 37432 Piszkéstető was named after the station, where it was discovered by astronomers Krisztián Sárneczky and Zsuzsanna Heiner in January 2002.

List of discovered minor planets

A total of 19 minor planet discoveries are credited directly to the Piszkéstető Station by the Minor Planet Center.

Gallery