Amateur astronomer first S. Korean to find comet By Lee Joon-seung

SEOUL, April 8 (Yonhap) -- The head of a local insect museum has become the first South Korean to discover a comet, the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute said Wednesday.

The institute said Yi Dae-am, head of the Yongwol Insectarium in mountainous
Gangwon Province, discovered the Yi-SWAN C/2009 F6 comet on March 26.
The findings made with a digital camera and a 90mm telescope were immediately
reported to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which checked the photos
and verified that the image belonged to an unidentified comet.
Because Yi discovered the comet almost simultaneously with Robert Matson of
Irvine, California, the IAU gave credit to both men.
However, since Yi reported the comet first, he was given the right to give his
name to the celestial object. Matson found the comet in pictures taken from March
29 through April 4 by the SWAN instrument on the Solar Heliospheric Observatory
spacecraft.
The state-run institute said the C/2009 F6 is one of the brightest comets in the
sky at present, with a magnitude of 8.5 that can easily be seen through a small
telescope. It is currently in the constellation Cassiopeia, but will move to
nearby Perseus by mid-month. It is a long-period comet and is expected to pass
within 1.27 astronomical units of the sun on May 8.
Yi, meanwhile, said the discovery was by chance and that he happened to see the
comet in pictures taken around 5 a.m.
An amateur astronomer for 30 years, Yi has built a small observatory in Yeongwol
County, 204 km east of Seoul.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
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