Emmanuel told Alternate Universe that he had reasoned that Japanese comet seekers rarely search w Centauri, while no Australian comet seekers, even the indefatigable Greg Burnt regularly search globular clusters. He realised, however, that he had to upgrade his binocular Telrads, and after much experimentation, connected his Telrads via eight TeleView Barlows, mounted in series, to an enhanced turbo-charged, liquid Nitrogen cooled CCD device, designed by amateur genius, Dipso Maniak of Coober Pedy in South Australia. Emmanuel estimates the comets’ magnitude to be around 23.4.
Comet Snodgrass is yet to be recognised by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which is awaiting confirmation by Australian representative Greg Burnt, who is yet to observe the object. Greg is currently having an enhanced coating put onto the main mirror of his 6" Comet Seeker telescope in order to verify Emmanuel’s discovery.
Mr Burnt considers that, to be visible at 18,000 light years - even in Emmanuel’s Super enhanced Telrad system - the comet must be a massive object, probably a Cometary Brown Dwarf (CBD), one of the newly theorised objects not massive enough to generate a thermonuclear reaction and become a star, but far more massive than Jupiter.
For the Brown Dwarf to acquire Cometary characteristics, it had to be orbiting close to a star of at least six Solar masses, with gas being stripped off the Brown Dwarf through interaction with the extended stellar corona and Solar Wind, so as to form the characteristic cometary tail about 10 light years in length.
If Emmanuel’s discovery is confirmed, the ASNSW proposes to commemorate the historical event on a specially inscribed brass plate, installed on the northern wall (that is, facing towards Dunedoo) of its recently completed quadrophonic Neutrino Detector at Wiruna.
The Queen is being kept informed, and an Honorary Knighthood for Mr Snodgrass has been rumoured.