Kamil Hornoch
Encyclopedia
Kamil Hornoch (ˈkamɪl ˈɦornox; born 5 December 1972) is a Czech amateur astronomer
who discovered dozens of nova
e in nearby galaxies
. The main belt asteroid 14124 Kamil
is named in his honour.
in 1984. One year later he started with his scientific observations
of comet
s, meteor
s, the solar
photosphere
, variable star
s, the planet
s and occultation
s. He lives in Lelekovice
, a village in the South Moravian Region
, the Czech Republic
.
Hornoch makes most of his observations from a small observatory in Lelekovice with a 35 cm (13.8 in) reflector telescope. Although he uses a CCD
camera, he is also good in visual estimates of star luminosity
, reaching an accuracy of 0.03 magnitude
(confirmed by separate photoelectric measurements
). He has also been acknowledged for his numerous estimates and measurements of brightness and positions of comets and variable stars, as well as position measurements of minor planet
s.
In 1993 he co-discovered (with Jan Kyselý) new variable star ES UMa.
He is a member of the Czech Astronomical Society. Since 2007 he works as a professional astronomer at the Ondřejov Observatory
.
and discovered his first extragalactic
nova
. Since that time, galaxy
M31 has become his favourite place to observe; he has made 43 nova discoveries and co-discoveries in that region (as of May 2007).
He also discovered two novae in the galaxy M81
in pictures taken by Czech astronomer Pavel Cagaš with his 26.5 cm (10.4 in) reflector telescope on 8 and 11 April 2007. No nova discovery had been made with such a small telescope in such a distance before. One of the novae, M81 2007 3, grew very luminous, reaching the quite extraordinary absolute magnitude
of −10 and apparent magnitude
of 17.6 six days later. It was the brightest nova ever discovered in M81.
In 2001 Lenka Šarounová
named the main belt asteroid 14124 Kamil
in his honour.
In 2003 he received the Jindřich Šilhán Award of the Variable Star Observer of the Year of the Czech Astronomical Society.
In 2006 Kamil Hornoch won the Amateur Achievement Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
.
Amateur astronomy
Amateur astronomy, also called backyard astronomy and stargazing, is a hobby whose participants enjoy watching the night sky , and the plethora of objects found in it, mainly with portable telescopes and binoculars...
who discovered dozens of nova
Nova
A nova is a cataclysmic nuclear explosion in a star caused by the accretion of hydrogen on to the surface of a white dwarf star, which ignites and starts nuclear fusion in a runaway manner...
e in nearby galaxies
Galaxy
A galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system that consists of stars and stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and an important but poorly understood component tentatively dubbed dark matter. The word galaxy is derived from the Greek galaxias , literally "milky", a...
. The main belt asteroid 14124 Kamil
14124 Kamil
14124 Kamil is a main-belt asteroid discovered on August 28, 1998 by Lenka Kotková at Ondřejov Observatory. The asteroid was named in honour of Czech astronomer Kamil Hornoch, in the time of the discovery a successful amateur variable star observer from Lelekovice, later employed at Ondřejov.-...
is named in his honour.
Astronomy
Kamil Hornoch became interested in astronomyAstronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
in 1984. One year later he started with his scientific observations
Observational astronomy
Observational astronomy is a division of the astronomical science that is concerned with getting data, in contrast with theoretical astrophysics which is mainly concerned with finding out the measurable implications of physical models...
of comet
Comet
A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet...
s, meteor
METEOR
METEOR is a metric for the evaluation of machine translation output. The metric is based on the harmonic mean of unigram precision and recall, with recall weighted higher than precision...
s, the solar
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
photosphere
Photosphere
The photosphere of an astronomical object is the region from which externally received light originates. The term itself is derived from Ancient Greek roots, φῶς, φωτός/phos, photos meaning "light" and σφαῖρα/sphaira meaning "sphere", in reference to the fact that it is a spheric surface perceived...
, variable star
Variable star
A star is classified as variable if its apparent magnitude as seen from Earth changes over time, whether the changes are due to variations in the star's actual luminosity, or to variations in the amount of the star's light that is blocked from reaching Earth...
s, the planet
Planet
A planet is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science,...
s and occultation
Occultation
An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden by another object that passes between it and the observer. The word is used in astronomy . It can also refer to any situation wherein an object in the foreground blocks from view an object in the background...
s. He lives in Lelekovice
Lelekovice
Lelekovice is a village in Brno-Country District, South Moravian Region, Czech Republic. It has a population of 1,571 . The asteroid 167208 Lelekovice was named in its honour on the occasion of the 720th anniversary of its founding, by the co-discoverer Kamil Hornoch, whose birthplace this is.-...
, a village in the South Moravian Region
South Moravian Region
South Moravian Region is an administrative unit of the Czech Republic, located in the south-western part of its historical region of Moravia, with exception of Jobova Lhota, that belongs to Bohemia. Its capital is Brno the 2nd largest city of the Czech Republic. The region is famous for its wine...
, the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
.
Hornoch makes most of his observations from a small observatory in Lelekovice with a 35 cm (13.8 in) reflector telescope. Although he uses a CCD
Charge-coupled device
A charge-coupled device is a device for the movement of electrical charge, usually from within the device to an area where the charge can be manipulated, for example conversion into a digital value. This is achieved by "shifting" the signals between stages within the device one at a time...
camera, he is also good in visual estimates of star luminosity
Luminosity
Luminosity is a measurement of brightness.-In photometry and color imaging:In photometry, luminosity is sometimes incorrectly used to refer to luminance, which is the density of luminous intensity in a given direction. The SI unit for luminance is candela per square metre.The luminosity function...
, reaching an accuracy of 0.03 magnitude
Apparent magnitude
The apparent magnitude of a celestial body is a measure of its brightness as seen by an observer on Earth, adjusted to the value it would have in the absence of the atmosphere...
(confirmed by separate photoelectric measurements
Photometry (astronomy)
Photometry is a technique of astronomy concerned with measuring the flux, or intensity of an astronomical object's electromagnetic radiation...
). He has also been acknowledged for his numerous estimates and measurements of brightness and positions of comets and variable stars, as well as position measurements of minor planet
Minor planet
An asteroid group or minor-planet group is a population of minor planets that have a share broadly similar orbits. Members are generally unrelated to each other, unlike in an asteroid family, which often results from the break-up of a single asteroid...
s.
In 1993 he co-discovered (with Jan Kyselý) new variable star ES UMa.
He is a member of the Czech Astronomical Society. Since 2007 he works as a professional astronomer at the Ondřejov Observatory
Ondrejov Observatory
The Ondřejov Observatory is the principal observatory of the Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. It is located near the village of Ondřejov, 35 km southeast of Prague....
.
Novae
In the summer of 2002, Hornoch took a series of pictures of the surrounding of the core of the Andromeda GalaxyAndromeda Galaxy
The Andromeda Galaxy is a spiral galaxy approximately 2.5 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Andromeda. It is also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224, and is often referred to as the Great Andromeda Nebula in older texts. Andromeda is the nearest spiral galaxy to the...
and discovered his first extragalactic
Extragalactic astronomy
Extragalactic astronomy is the branch of astronomy concerned with objects outside our own Milky Way Galaxy. In other words, it is the study of all astronomical objects which are not covered by galactic astronomy, the next level of galactic astronomy....
nova
Nova
A nova is a cataclysmic nuclear explosion in a star caused by the accretion of hydrogen on to the surface of a white dwarf star, which ignites and starts nuclear fusion in a runaway manner...
. Since that time, galaxy
Galaxy
A galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system that consists of stars and stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and an important but poorly understood component tentatively dubbed dark matter. The word galaxy is derived from the Greek galaxias , literally "milky", a...
M31 has become his favourite place to observe; he has made 43 nova discoveries and co-discoveries in that region (as of May 2007).
He also discovered two novae in the galaxy M81
Messier 81
Messier 81 is a spiral galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. Due to its proximity to Earth, large size and active galactic nucleus Messier 81 (also known as NGC 3031 or Bode's Galaxy) is a spiral galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa...
in pictures taken by Czech astronomer Pavel Cagaš with his 26.5 cm (10.4 in) reflector telescope on 8 and 11 April 2007. No nova discovery had been made with such a small telescope in such a distance before. One of the novae, M81 2007 3, grew very luminous, reaching the quite extraordinary absolute magnitude
Absolute magnitude
Absolute magnitude is the measure of a celestial object's intrinsic brightness. it is also the apparent magnitude a star would have if it were 32.6 light years away from Earth...
of −10 and apparent magnitude
Apparent magnitude
The apparent magnitude of a celestial body is a measure of its brightness as seen by an observer on Earth, adjusted to the value it would have in the absence of the atmosphere...
of 17.6 six days later. It was the brightest nova ever discovered in M81.
Awards
In 1996 Kamil Hornoch became the first person to receive the newly established Zdeněk Kvíz Award of the Czech Astronomical Society for his activities in the field of interplanetary matter.In 2001 Lenka Šarounová
Lenka Šarounová
Lenka Kotková is a Czech astronomer.She is a prolific discoverer of asteroids. She works at Observatoř Ondřejov , located near Prague...
named the main belt asteroid 14124 Kamil
14124 Kamil
14124 Kamil is a main-belt asteroid discovered on August 28, 1998 by Lenka Kotková at Ondřejov Observatory. The asteroid was named in honour of Czech astronomer Kamil Hornoch, in the time of the discovery a successful amateur variable star observer from Lelekovice, later employed at Ondřejov.-...
in his honour.
In 2003 he received the Jindřich Šilhán Award of the Variable Star Observer of the Year of the Czech Astronomical Society.
In 2006 Kamil Hornoch won the Amateur Achievement Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Astronomical Society of the Pacific
The Astronomical Society of the Pacific is a scientific and educational organization, founded in San Francisco on February 7, 1889. Its name derives from its origins on the Pacific Coast, but today it has members all over the country and the world...
.