The Piszkéstető Station or Piszkéstető Mountain Station is an

astronomical observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysics, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. Th ...

Mátraszentimre Mátraszentimre () is a village in Heves County, Hungary, in the Mátra mountain range, between the Darázs, Teréz and Nagy-Átal-kő mountains. The Galya-tető peak is inside of the village territory, east from the center. As of 2022 census, it ...

in Mátra Mountains, about northeast of Hungary's capital

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

. It is a station of

Konkoly Observatory Konkoly Observatory (; obs. code: 053) is an astronomical observatory located in Budapest, Hungary is part of the Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences () and belongs to thHUN-REN Magyar Kutatási Hálózat Konkoly Observato ...

, first built in 1958. It has the observatory code

461 __NOTOC__ Year 461 ( CDLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Severinus and Dagalaiphus (or, less frequently, year 1214 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denominat ...

and

561 __NOTOC__ Year 561 ( DLXI) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 561 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe ...

for being used by the

Szeged University The University of Szeged () is a public research university in Szeged, Hungary. Established as the Jesuit Academy of Kolozsvár in present-day Cluj-Napoca in 1581, the institution was re-established as a university in 1872 by Emperor Franz Jose ...

and Konkoly Observatory, respectively.

Instruments

The observatory currently features four telescopes: * 60/90/180-centimetre

Schmidt telescope Schmidt may refer to: * Schmidt (surname), including list of people and fictional characters with the surname * Schmidt (singer) (born 1990), German pop and jazz singer * Schmidt (lunar crater), a small lunar impact crater * Schmidt (Martian c ...

since 1962 * 80-centimetre Ritchey-Chrétien telescope since 2019 (which replaced the 50-centimetre

Cassegrain telescope The Cassegrain reflector is a combination of a primary concave mirror and a secondary convex mirror, often used in optical telescopes and radio antennas, the main characteristic being that the optical path folds back onto itself, relative to th ...

that has been in its place since 1966) * 1-metre

Ritchey–Chrétien telescope A Ritchey–Chrétien telescope (RCT or simply RC) is a specialized variant of the Cassegrain telescope that has a hyperboloid, hyperbolic primary mirror and a hyperbolic secondary mirror designed to eliminate off-axis optical errors (Coma (optic ...

since 1974 * 40-centimetre Ritchey–Chrétien telescope since 2010

Discovery of Impactors

Piszkéstető Station discovered 3 of the first 8

impactors Impactor may refer to: * A large meteoroid, asteroid, comet, or other celestial object which causes an impact event * Impactor (''Transformers''), a fictional character * Impactor (spacecraft), a craft designed for high-velocity landing * Impact ...

which were observed and confirmed while still in orbit: , 2023 CX1, and

2024 BX1 , previously known under its temporary designation Sar2736, was a about 1 metre-sized (39 inches) asteroid or meteoroid that entered Earth's atmosphere on 21 January 2024 00:33 UTC and disintegrated as a meteor over Berlin. The recovered fragm ...

. The asteroid 2022EB was only the fifth asteroid in history to have been discovered prior to impact. This puts the station in a very short list of observatories that have achieved this feat. Several asteroids impact earth every year with enough force to be detected by infrasound sensors designed to detect detonation of nuclear devices, but the vast majority of impacts are unpredicted and occur without warning. Piszkéstető Station discovered this asteroid before it impacted. 2023 CX1 was discovered at the station on February 12, 2023 and impacted the Earth off the coast of Normandy, France.

was discovered at the station a few hours before it entered the Earth's atmosphere near Berlin on January 21, 2024.

Honors

The minor planet 37432 Piszkéstető was named after the station, where it was discovered by astronomers

Krisztián Sárneczky Krisztián Sárneczky (born 6 November 1974 in Budapest) is a Hungarian people, Hungarian teacher of geography and prolific discoverer of minor planets and supernovae, researching at Konkoly Observatory in Budapest, Hungary. He is a board member ...

and

Zsuzsanna Heiner This is a list of minor-planet discoverers credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of one or several minor planets (such as near-Earth and main-belt asteroids, Jupiter trojans and distant objects). , the discovery of 612,011 num ...

in January 2002.

List of discovered minor planets

A total of 19

minor planet According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''minor ...

discoveries are credited directly to the Piszkéstető Station by the

Minor Planet Center The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Funct ...

Gallery

References

External links

Piszkéstető Station

3D animation: 1 m RCC telescope
{{DEFAULTSORT:Piszkesteto Station Astronomical observatories in Hungary * Minor-planet discovering observatories