Confirmations for December 2021, and year-end summary

Hi All,

The final set of confirmations for 2021:

Soho#  Date/Time of Post  Discoverer     Tel     Group   Images of...
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4326  Dec01,21 02:03:53   Boonplod/Yang C3,C2    Kreutz  Dec01,21
4327  Dec01,21 21:54:47   Z.Yang         C2      Kreutz  Dec01,21
4328  Dec03,21 11:14:15   W.Boonplod    C3,C2    Kreutz  Dec03,21
4329  Dec03,21 19:58:31   Z.Yang         C2      Kreutz  Dec04,21
4330  Dec05,21 02:14:26   Z.Yang       H1,C3,C2  Kreutz  Dec04-05,21
4331  Dec09,21 01:34:59   W.Boonplod   H1,C3,C2  Kreutz  Dec07-10,21
4332  Dec09,21 02:25:11   R.Pickard      C2      Kreutz  Dec09,21
4333  Dec10,21 17:44:30   R.Pickard      C2      Kreutz  Dec10-11,21
4334  Dec12,21 15:43:20   R.Pickard     C3,C2    Kreutz  Dec12-13,21
4335  Dec13,21 02:44:36   R.Pickard      C2      Kreutz  Dec13,21
4336  Dec16,21 17:10:58   W.Boonplod  H1,C3,C2   Kreutz  Dec16-17,21
4337  Dec17,21 14:13:19   S.Liwo        C3,C2    Kreutz  Dec17-18,21
4338  Dec17,21 21:44:48   W.Boonplod    C3,C2    Kreutz  Dec17-18,21
4339  Dec18,21 18:11:11   W.Boonplod    C3,C2    Kreutz  Dec18-19,21
4340  Dec23,21 07:03:06   W.Boonplod    C3,C2    Kreutz  Dec23-24,21
4341  Dec23,21 16:09:35   W.Boonplod    C3,C2    Kreutz  Dec23-25,21
4342  Dec24,21 02:27:40   Z.Yang         C2      Kreutz  Dec24,21
4343  Dec27,21 17:03:30   T.Prestgard    C2      Kreutz  Dec26-27,21

There were a couple of fragments reported close to SOHO-4326. I looked carefully at them and I understand why they were reported, but they look too much like a part of the comet's faint tail so I couldn't confirm them. I will work on archive reports next...

So that wraps up another highly successful year! It looks like we had 201 confirmed SOHO comets, which is perfectly in-line with previous years (203 in 2021, 200 in 2020, and 209 in 2019, for example). I'm sure that one or two archive comets will be found, as they always are. But still the numbers remain amazingly consistent year after year. 

The contributions that you all make are hugely valuable and always appreciated, whether you have been with the Sungrazer Project for all of its twenty years or if you only just joined this past year. Speaking of which, I did want to specifically congratulate a few of the past year's comet discoverers:

  • First, many congratulations to Robert Pickard, who only found his first comet in January 2021 and has since discovered over 30 comets (plus some archive reports I still need to check!).
  • Second, congratulations to Rafal Biros, who found his first comet in 2020 at the age of 13 years old, and found ten more comets last year! This project has a history of inspiring young enthusiasts to pursue careers in astronomy and physical sciences, and I very much hope that this trend continues.
  • Congratulations to Zesheng Yang, who made a couple of discoveries in 2015, then disappeared for a while, and returned this year to find 18 more comets -- it's good to see you back, Zesheng!
  • Many congratulations to Peter Berrett, who has focused on archive comets and found a tremendous number of previously unreported non-group and Meyer-group comets. I'm a convinced that there is a great deal of science in the non-group comet archive, so these are really valuable discoveries.
  • Finally, congratulations to Worachate Boonplod for again finding a huge number of new comets in 2021 (95, by my count!).

There are many others that have discovered comets this year, all of whom deserve congratulations and thanks too, particularly those of you (e.g. Jiangao Ruan, Masanori Uchina, Sergey Sherpakov, to name a few) that have been reporting/discovering comets for well over a decade now. But everyone who contributes, whether they find a new comet or not, is of course tremendously appreciated. 

I look forward to another year full of surprising and exciting discoveries!

Karl