Kamil Hornoch

Lore & Background

Kamil Hornoch became interested in astronomy in 1984 and began scientific observations of comets, meteors, the solar photosphere, variable stars, planets, and occultations in 1985. He lives in Lelekovice, a village in the South Moravian Region, Czech Republic, and makes most observations from a small observatory there using a 35 cm (14 in) reflector telescope. Although he uses a CCD camera, he is also skilled in visual estimates of star luminosity, achieving an accuracy of 0.03 magnitude confirmed by separate photoelectric measurements. He has been acknowledged for numerous estimates and measurements of brightness and positions of comets and variable stars, as well as position measurements of minor planets. In 1993 he co-discovered (with Jan Kyselý) the new variable star ES UMa. He is a member of the Czech Astronomical Society and since 2007 has worked as a professional astronomer at the Ondřejov Observatory.

Reader's Guide

In the summer of 2002, Hornoch took a series of pictures of the surroundings of the core of the Andromeda Galaxy and discovered his first extragalactic nova. Galaxy M31 became his favorite place to observe; as of May 2007 he had made 43 nova discoveries and co-discoveries in that region. He also discovered two novae in galaxy M81 in pictures taken by Czech astronomer Pavel Cagaš with a 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 at such a distance before. One of these novae, M81 2007 3, grew very luminous, reaching an absolute magnitude of −10 and apparent magnitude of 17.6 six days later, making it the brightest nova ever discovered in M81. Hornoch received the Zdeněk Kvíz Award in 1996, the Jindřich Šilhán Award in 2003, and the Amateur Achievement Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in 2006. The main belt asteroid 14124 Kamil was named in his honor by Lenka Šarounová in 2001.

Did You Know?

• Hornoch discovered his first extragalactic nova in the summer of 2002.
• He made 43 nova discoveries and co-discoveries in galaxy M31 as of May 2007.
• He discovered two novae in M81 using images taken by Pavel Cagaš with a 26.5 cm telescope.
• The asteroid 14124 Kamil is named in his honor.