My Diary

June 8
Minor planet Otakasakajyo is born.

    The photograph below is that of Otakasakajyo Castle, the present day Kochi Castle. It was called Otakasakajyo when it was built about 400 years ago.
    Recently, the minor planet 1993 BL2 discovered at Geisei Observatory has been named (26127) Otakasakajyo.
    The first governor of the castle was Kazutoyo Yamauchi and the castle has been loved by the citizens of Tosa (Kochi) to the present day. Many tourists come to see the castle and Dr. B.G. Marsden of the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams visited there in 1987. The birthplace of the famous Tosa warrior Ryoma Sakamoto is located in the castle town of Kochi not far from the castle itself.


May 9
    The Japan Spaceguard Association Kansai Branch held the 33rd lecture presentation today. It was held at Sannomiya of Kobe City and I was invited as a speaker.
Among the present at the meeting were Dr. Hasegawa, president of OAA (Oriental Astronomical Association), and Dr. Yabushita, famous for his "Yabushita Theory" of cometary motion. I had the impression that there were more scholars of astronomy in the audience than members of the public . The topic of my lecturer was "the excitement of a new discovery" and I spoke as long as three hours in the presence of the enthusiastic audience.
    Comet Ikeya-Seki of 1965 was the main topic of my lecture, but I talked about not only the discovery itself, but also the personality of Mr.Ikeya, co-discoverer of the comet, revealing various episodes about him not widely known. For the first time, the music "Ikeya-Seki" on DVD was played during the lecture. It was composed by Cuban musician Jose Caleyo to mark Comet Ikeya-Seki's close encounter with the sun in October, 1965. The music was recorded last autumn at a concert held by the members of a band Mr. Caleyo had belonged to, but had not been played in public until that moment. Although this music was played to entertain the audience, the discovery of this comet is extremely important to me. Forty-three years have passed since the music was composed and finally it was performed in public for the first time today.
    The audience listened eagerly to my talk about the discoveries of minor planets, which had become the main work of Geisei's 60cm reflector. I recounted my experiences related to the naming of these minor planets, which brought tears to the eyes of the participants. It is wonderful that there is romance about the naming of minor planets. As usual, I did not fail to give a gift to the community where the meeting was held. I have decided to name one of the minor planets after "Rokkosan", Kobe's most famous mountain. This minor planet was, of course, discovered at Gesei.
    There were some "fans" of me who stayed on to the end of the function. Mr. Katsuhiko Mameda, a local person, was one of them. I have been in touch with him by correspondence for 40 years. He brought several books along for me to autograph. Among them were the first edition of "Seeking Unknown Stars" published in 1966 and "The Comet" by Mr. Shigeru Kanda, which he found easily at a nearby secondhand bookstore. There were photographs mysteriously inserted between pages. They were the photos of Comet Peltier and another great comet both shot by Mr. Shinichi Shimizu. What is this great comet, I wondered. There was also a business card found in the book. It could be the previous owner's card.
    When I was to leave, Mr. and Mrs. Michikazu Onishi, who devoted their time to making the meeting successful, gave me "Comets and Meteors" written by Shigeru Kanda. I have a fond memory about this book. In my 20s I spent countless days tackling orbital calculations using this book as a textbook. I forgot myself in orbital calculations of a large number of minor planets spending most of the day staring at formulae and logarithmic tables. Orbital calculations and comet search were all that mattered in my 20s. I shared this experience with the audience during the lecture.
    It was clear the following day, too. From the window of the express bus going from Sannomiya to Itami Airport, I saw Mt. Rokko towering in the north. In the past there must have been memorable sights of great comets hanging over the mountain ridges of Rokko. I left Kobe pondering, "soon this renowned mountain will travel in starry skies." During the flight to Kochi, I saw thunderclouds rising high in a clear sky, a hint of the arrival of summer. This towering clouds will be the symbol of hopes for the future.

April 25
    While looking at a star chart on the computer screen for telescope control, I noticed that 22P/Kopff was glowing in Aquarius in the dawn sky. A memory about this comet goes as far back as 40 years.
    "Comet Seki-Ike", of course, doesn't exist, but in the 1960s you couldn't rule out the possibility of its discovery. Mr. Koichi Ike in Tosa city (15km west of Kochi city) was a rival comet hunter and we were furiously competitive for discovery.
    In those days I was using the 9cm refracting comet seeker, while Mr. Ike was equipped with a little larger 12.5cm refractor. He would lock himself in his unique floor-revolging observatory and search mainly the predawn eastern sky. The sky conditions were excellent and observing instruments were perfect. "The next comet is mine for sure", he grinned with his inherent large eyes shining with eagerness.
    This incident occurred on the early morning of April 25, 1964. I was searching a perfectly clear starry sky with my mind firmly set on the job. Around half past three I spotted a 9th-magnitude fuzzy comet-like object in Aquarius. Nothing was marked at that position on a star chart and there was no prediction of a bright comet appearing there. A half hour later, someone banged the front door. Stunned, I went to open the door to find a whey-faced man standing there. I instantly recognized him. It was Mr. Ike. "Seki-san, I've found it!" said he in a highly excited voice.
    Believing he found what I had found earlier, I asked him in and compared the notes. Undoubtedly, we spotted the same object. In the absence of any bright comet predicted at that position, we named this object "Comet Seki-Ike" according to Mr. Ike's suggestion. We sent a telegraph to Tokyo Astronomical Observatory at 6 am. The following day, Mr. Ikeya of Hamamatsu sent a telegraph on the discovery of the same object to the observatory, too.
    A reply from Tokyo Observatory revealed that it was the outburst of the famous periodic comet 22P/Kopff. I knew that this comet was listed in the BAA Handbook predicted to be at 14th magnitude, but the sudden brightening by 5 magnitudes fooled up completely. A similar thing happened in 1955. Comet Mrkos discovered that year was supposed to be a new comet, but as a result of research turned out to be long-lost Comet Perrine. As a result, it was renamed Comet Perrine-Mrkos.
    I wonder where Mr. Ike is now and what he is doing. He long loved comets and searched for them for nearly 50 years. In spite of his numerous heroic episodes of comet search, he was rewarded so little. I gave his name to a minor planet discovered at Geisei. The naming of Minor Planet Ike (21022) is to symbolize our friendship.
    When Comet Ikeya-Seki "kissed" the sun on October 21, 1965, he observed the comet with his unique invention. He built a darkroom to observe the comet during the daytime. It has become an ever-lasting fond memory for me. Mr. Ike, full of adventurous spirit and curiosity, was constantly on the move chasing after comets. His unrecognized achievements will never fade away as long as his star shines in the sky.


April 5
    There is an interesting attraction in Kochi city called "Street Number 33 on the Earth" located at Yayoi-cho, a town downstream Enokuchigawa River running through the middle of Kochi city.
    This is where longitude 133 degrees east and latitude 33 degrees north cross each other. The exact position of the longitude and latitude lines crossing is located in the stream of the narrow river only 30 meters wide. Thirty years ago, a monument was erected there, but relatively recently a new duralumin globe has been attached to the top of the monument.
    Around 1965 when I discovered Comet Ikeya-Seki, there was a newspaper reporter living in that area. On every important occasion he came over to cover the news. Interestingly, on his business card he wrote "in the vicinity of Street Number 33 on the Earth" for his address. He did so because the area he lived was a jumble of houses and narrow streets and it was very difficult to locate his home. "Street Number 33 on the Earth" must have been a lot easier to find.
    When I visited him, I ended up at a house one block south of his place by mistake. Believe it or not, I found two good-looking equatorial astronomical telescopes in the front yard. Needless to say, I didn't know anything about the residents of the house, but realized that there are people who observe the night sky without being known to others. I myself was one of them and a complete novice when I found Comet Crommelin, my first discovery. Learning about my discovery, the then deputy chief of the news department of local Kochi Shinbun newspaper located our place only after searching all over the place throughout the night. He barely managed to meet the deadline to place the discovery news in the morning paper.
    Reminiscing about those days, I took a shot of the monument with a spy camera called Gami-16. How did its Esamitar f/1.9 25mm lens work? All the details in the distance are brought out beautifully.

    My favorite Gami-16 works perfectly well and does not require any repair by "Mr. Galileo Galilei", president of Officine Galileo of Milan.