Zvezdno obshtestvo observatory А79 was found in the summer of 2005 by group of Bulgarian professional and amateur astronomers. Some of our team members had observed previously from the observation site MPC A61, Tortona, Italy. The head of IAU A79, Filip Fratev, graduated in astronomy in 2001. He obtained his PhD degree in 2007 and has worked mainly abroad for several European Universities (2002-2009). Currently, the permanent members of A79 are: Filip Fratev, Elina Mihaylova,
Apostol Kirchev, Radoslav Stanchev, Lubomir Vrigazov and Kolyo Dankov.
The main subjects of the observations are:
- Following up newly discovered comets and asteroids to help improve their orbits.
- Recoveries and early observations of the periodic comets; in our observation program we consider also the fainter objects that don’t get quite so much attention as many of the brighter one.
- In the summer of 2006 we started searching for new MB asteroids.
- In the summer of 2009 we started regularly to confirm the Near Earth Objects (NEOs) listed on the NEOCP page. In fact, currently only IAU A79 perform observations on newly discovered NEOs from Bulgaria. This is an extremely important area because all early observations of the NEOs give to the word scientific community information about the potential risk.
- During our 2009 observations we started to study the NEOCP objects for a potentially cometary nature.
- In 2010 we plan to start a new program for NEO asteroid search and exoplanet transits studies, but to realize that we need to upgrade our main camera. Currently we use MX-716 CCD which is only 0.3 Mpix camera and has a FOV of 14-18 arc min, i.e. too small for the above “game”.
A79 collaborates with MPC and also with several projects like for instance CARA and Cometas_Obs. Some of our results you can find here. During the last two years we became leader in the astrometric observations in Bulgaria and discovered the first new asteroids in our country over the past 18 years. Our goal was to support and inspire the young people in Bulgaria with interest in astronomy. We had several contributions to the observations during different campaigns such as the summer schools, astro parties and other.During the last years, we funded alone the observations. Unfortunately, the financial conditions in Bulgaria are very bad (mean salary about 150-200 euro), and from September 2006 we were not able to perform any regular observations.
Update: In 2009 most of our members come back from abroad and continued to observe and provide to the MPC observations from Bulgaria. Our activity was and is widely portrayed in the Bulgarian mass media, the national TVs (Kanal 1, BTV, Nova TV and many others) and most of the news papers. However, from the middle of December we will again not able to fund our activities and expeditions to the observatory. We also need of new CCD camera. Bulgaria is a small country, but we believe that we can continue to live and give our contribution from our country not only from abroad. Thus, we decided to create a new organization which supports the observations with scientific direction from Bulgaria and the education of the young people.We are looking for sponsors and are open for any helpful suggestions.
If you are able to help please use the following bank accounts or PayPal:
Thank you in advance for your support!!
Account No: 7000 4500524207 (in EUR), IBAN BG59UNCR70004500524207, SWIS: UNCRBGSF
Account No: 7527 1059578317 (in BGN)
Contacts: filipfratev@yahoo.com
