Donald Machholz

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Donald Edward Machholz is an American amateur astronomer from Colfax, California.

He is the most successful living visual comet hunter in the United States, being creditied with the discovery of 10 comets, including the periodic comets 96P/Machholz, 141P/Machholz and, his most recent discovery, the non-periodic C/2004 Q2 (Machholz) that was easily visible in binoculars in the northern sky in 2004 and 2005.

Machholz is also considered to be one of the inventors of the Messier marathon, which is a race to observe all the Messier objects in a single night.

[edit] Books by Don Machholz

• The Observing Guide to the Messier Marathon: A Handbook and Atlas
• Decade of Comets: A Study of the 33 Comets Discovered by Amateur Astronomers Between 1975 and 1984
• An observer's guide to comet Hale-Bopp: Making the most of Comet Hale-Bopp : when and where to observe Comet Hale-Bopp and what to look for

[edit] References

• Sky and Telescope: Comet Machholz in the Evening Sky