Science: Through the Looking Glass

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Every night last week, 16-year-old Lewis Macfarlane, a tall, intent Seattle high-school senior, carefully trained his homemade 8-in. telescope on a northeastern sector of the star-sprinkled sky. Now and then he paused to check his notes with fellow sky-watcher Karl Krienke, 24, a math teacher at Seattle Pacific College. They were compiling a log—speed, appearance, location—on Comet 1955F, and their unmistakable pride came from the fact that they had just discovered the new comet themselves.

Actually, they officially shared astronomical honors with a Russian professional, A. M. Bakharev, who had reported seeing Comet 1955F 17 hours ahead of them, thanks to the difference in time.

"It sort of burns me up, the Russians being first," said Macfarlane. "But we shouldn't complain. It isn't everybody that even co-discovers a comet."

The discovery came by accident on a clear night after Krienke joined his fellow amateur on the Macfarlane back porch.

The two sky watchers picked out a couple of stars that resembled the Square of Pegasus. Then Karl Krienke spotted a dim celestial body which neither he nor Macfarlane could identify, even with the star charts. In the rain, two nights later, the two amateurs waited for a break in the clouds, rechecked their data. Then Macfarlane, "so excited I could hardly dial Western Union," rushed word of their new find to Harvard Observatory.

Back came confirmation and congratulations on finding the sixth new comet of the year. Amateurs Macfarlane and Krienke were making no plans to turn pro. Nevertheless, Macfarlane last week bought a 10-in. lens, planned to put together a bigger telescope to replace his old $150 eight-incher. "It's something — all those billions of miles of unknown space out there. And the comet — that's just about the most beautiful thing I ever saw."