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BillYeung:
Discovery story of the comet from Bob Denny (Designer of ACP software):
Comet Elenin - The Rest of the Story
Disc ImageDiscovered on December 10, 2010, Comet C/2010 X1 (Elenin) received a lot of attention. It would have been spectacular viewing. However, in mid-August a coronal mass ejection from the Sun basically destroyed Comet Elenin. Along with the astronomical news, Comet Elenin has been the subject of numerous ridiculous conspiracy and doomsday rumors. So much for that!
Yeung ObsBut there's a back story involving ACP Scheduler, one of our first customers William Kwong Yu Yeung (who named asteroid 23257 after Bob Denny), and Mike Rice at New Mexico Skies. From 2001-2006, Bill Yeung ran ACP on four 18" Centurion telescopes out of a toy hauler in Arizona City, AZ, then out of a manufactured home in Benson, AZ, doing astroid hunting. He then moved his operations to New Mexico Skies and returned to Hong Kong to run remotely (using ACP, of course).
Leonid EleninIn late 2009, Yeung's remaining Centurion was decomissioned. Shortly thereafter, Leonid Elenin and the International Scientific Optical Network (Russia) contacted New Mexico Skies about remote observing from Russia. Mike Rice proposed a custom upgrade to the Centurion as a cost-effective solution to their survey needs. The upgraded Centurion system was turned over to the Russian team fully operational with ACP Scheduler in June 2010. Only six months later, the Russian team discovered Comet Elenin. The sheer volume of survey imagery that Scheduler was able to produce (compared to hand-started live automation or manual imaging) was a big factor.
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