Observations of Comets, Minor Planets and Meteors in Japan

Abstract

In the early period of this century, some comets were discovered by Japanese amateur astronomers. Just fifty years ago, in 1937, Minoru Honda began to search for systematically comets with his 15-cm reflector. He observed Comet Encke without an ephemeris in November, 1937, and made his firts discovery of a comet in 1940. This comet was also discovered independently by Shigeki Okabayashi (Comet Okabayashi-Honda, 1940e). Subsequently, Honda discovered Comet Friend-Reese-Honda (1941a) in 1941. Unfortunately, Okabayashi was killed at the Second World War in 1945.After the end of the war, Honda discovered ten comets during 1947 and 1968. In 1968, he discovered three comets in a year. He has been an active observer of comets and novae. Stimulated by Honda’s success, Tsutomu Seki began his comet hunting in 1950, and his long and patient efforts were rewarded with the discovery of Comet Seki, 1961f. Seki later discovered six comets, and rediscovered six short-period comets before 1981. In that year, Seizo Goto, a well-known telescope maker in Japan, donated a 60-cm reflector. Since then, with the Goto telescope, Seki has made many astronomic observations of comets and minor planets. He has rediscovered some periodic comets and has discovered many minor planets every year.