Yūji Hyakutake
Yūji Hyakutake ( Japanese 百 武 裕 司 Hyakutake Yūji [ çakɯ̥take jɯːdʒi ]; born July 7, 1950 in Shimabara , Nagasaki ; † April 10, 2002 in Kokubu , Kagoshima ) was a Japanese amateur astronomer and discoverer of two comets .
Origin, family and job
Y. Hyakutake's family name means “one hundred samurai, ” a name given to one of his ancestors by a prince , and it also represented Yuji's work ethic. He visited the Nagasaki Kita High School and after graduating from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the private University Kyushu Sangyo Daigaku in Fukuoka , he was employed there at the newspaper Fukunichi Shimbun until its closure in 1992, where he was a photographer artwork created. In 1993 he moved to Hayato, Kagoshima Prefecture, as a freelance photographer , where his wife was born.
He was married to Shoko and had two sons. He died on the way to hospital at the age of 51 after developing internal bleeding from a ruptured aneurysm on his heart .
Activity as an amateur astronomer
Y. Hyakutake became interested in astronomy when he saw the Great Comet C / 1965 S1 (Ikeya-Seki) at the age of fifteen . In 1989 he built a private observatory behind his house and began seriously looking for comets. Because of the light pollution he was unsuccessful in Fukuoka for years and switched to another hobby , mountaineering .
After moving to Hayato, the circumstances were more favorable, he intensified his observations from a mountain peak 15 km away and so he discovered his first comet at the end of December 1995 with a 25 × 150 comet finder . Only a month later he observed his comet and unexpectedly found his second comet near the place of his first discovery, which was to develop into one of the largest comets of the 20th century . At home he first developed a few pictures that he had taken, so when he reported his discovery to the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan in Tokyo, he was only barely two other explorers ahead of it.
Comet discoveries
- C / 1995 Y1 (Hyakutake) , discovered December 25, 1995
- C / 1996 B2 (Hyakutake) , discovered January 30, 1996
Awards
- Invitation to public lectures at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago in March 1996 and the Perth Observatory in Australia .
- Honorary Citizenship Certificate of the City of Chicago
- Certificate of Honor from Kagoshima Prefecture
- Director of the people's observatory "Starland AIRA" in Aira from October 1996
- An asteroid discovered in 1991 in the main belt received the official name (7291) Hyakutake after Yūji Hyakutake in 2000 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ A. Nakamura: Yuji Hyakutake (1950-2002). In: International Comet Quarterly. Vol. 24, 2002, p. 236. ( PDF; 64.1 MB )
- ↑ Comet discoverer Hyakutake dies. In: The Japan Times. The Japan Times Ltd., April 12, 2002, accessed August 17, 2020 .
- ↑ D. Tytell, EL Aguirre: Yuji Hyakutake (1950-2002). In: Sky & Telescope. AAS Sky Publishing LLC., July 23, 2003, accessed August 17, 2020 .
- ↑ M. Oliver: Yuji Hyakutake, 51; Amateur Discovered Giant Comet. In: Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, April 14, 2004, accessed August 17, 2020 .
- ↑ EL Aguirre: How Yuji Hyakutake found his comet. In: Sky & Telescope. AAS Sky Publishing LLC., April 12, 2004, accessed August 17, 2020 .
- ^ IAU Minor Planet Center. IAU, accessed on August 17, 2020 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hyakutake, Yūji |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | 百 武 裕 司 (Japanese) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Japanese amateur astronomer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 7, 1950 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Shimabara |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 10, 2002 |
| Place of death | Kokubu |