"Breakthrough For Comet Seekers" - Emmanuel Snodgrass

Dunedoo’s most famous son, Comet Hunter Extraordinaire Emmanuel Snodgrass, has reported a major finding. When testing his newly mounted binocular Telrads at his usual observing location in the Car Park of the Commercial Hotel, Dunedoo, Emmanuel happened to glance through his favourite apochromat guidescope while it was pointed towards the LMC, and discovered countless comet-like objets, fainter than mag 3. He concluded that wide-field refractors could well be useful in searching for comets below the threshold range of Telrads - a useful pursuit when 1st and 2nd mag comets are in short supply.

In his excitement, he quickly scanned both the LMC and SMC, and proposes to search the Carina region during next New Moon. He has so far identified 447 suspect comets in the LMC alone, and has transmitted positional data to Comet sleuth Greg Burnt for confirmation. When asked to comment on Emmanuel’s feat, Greg in obvious admiration, admitted he was lost for words.

To bring order to his search, Emmanuel has been inspired by his idol, Charles Messier, and is preparing a Snodgrass Catalogue of the LMC and SMC. The brightest LMC object, catalogued as S1, is described as resembling a blue-ringed octopus eating an amoeba.

A Snodgrass Marathon is proposed for the Year 2000 Dunedoo combined Beerfest and cultural exposition to be held in the beer garden of the Commercial Hotel on Easter Sunday. First prize is an autographed copy of the Lesser Catalogue of Way Beyond the NGC, by Steve Mensinbin.