In the seven weeks since the discovery of Comet Ikeya-Zhang, two more comets have been discovered visually by amateur astronomers. While neither is expected to rival Ikeya-Zhang's brightness this spring, these new finds show that the era of backyard comet hunting is far from over.

The first of the new comets was bagged on March 11th. Douglas Snyder swept up the faint object in Aquila while scanning the predawn skies with a 20-inch f/5 Dobsonian telescope at his backyard observatory in Palominas, Arizona. Seven hours later, as dawn approached Japan, Shigeki Murakami in Matsunoyama, Niigata Prefecture, picked up the interloper with his 18-inch f/4.5 reflector. Designated Comet Snyder-Murakami, C/2002 E2, the object is currently visible in medium-size telescopes as a 10th-magnitude glow moving north-northeast in the morning sky, from Aquila to Sagitta and then to Vulpecula.

"This is such a rare and rewarding event," says Snyder, "and I'm still so overwhelmed at my luck in finding it."

Orbital calculations by Brian G. Marsden (Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams) show that C/2002 E2 reached the point in its orbit closest to the Sun (perihelion) last February 21st, at a distance of 220 million kilometers. Although it is moving farther away from the Sun, the comet should remain around 10th magnitude until early April, after which it will slowly begin to fade. Amateur CCD imagers should be able to keep track of it throughout spring and beyond.

The last time a comet was discovered visually in the United States was on April 22, 1998, when Patrick L. Stonehouse of Wolverine, Michigan, discovered C/1998 H1 with a 17½-inch reflector.

Just one week after the Snyder-Murakami find, in the early morning twilight of March 18th, Japanese observer Syogo Utsunomiya discovered another comet with a pair of 25x150 binoculars. Experts have yet to calculate the orbit of the new object (dubbed C/2002 F1), but for the past couple of days, the fuzzy ball has shone at 11th magnitude in Pegasus.

Below is a table listing the magnitude and location of Comet Snyder-Murakami. A similar listing for C/2002 F1 will become available when its orbit is determined.

Comet Snyder-Murakami, C/2002 E2

Date	RA 2000	Dec.	Elong.	Mag.	Const.
0h UT	h   m	°   '	°
Mar 20	19 04.2	+07 56	73	10.1	Aql
Mar 23	19 07.2	+11 18	75	10.1	Aql
Mar 26	19 10.0	+14 47	77	10.1	Aql
Mar 29	19 12.6	+18 21	79	10.1	Sge
Apr 1	19 15.1	+22 00	80	10.1	Vul
Apr 4	19 17.5	+25 43	82	10.2	Vul
Apr 7	19 19.6	+29 27	83	10.2	Lyr
Apr 10	19 21.5	+33 12	84	10.2	Lyr
Apr 13	19 23.1	+36 55	85	10.3	Lyr
Apr 16	19 24.4	+40 34	86	10.4	Lyr
Apr 19	19 25.4	+44 09	86	10.4	Cyg
Apr 22	19 26.0	+47 38	86	10.5	Cyg
Apr 25	19 26.2	+51 00	87	10.6	Cyg
Apr 28	19 25.9	+54 13	86	10.7	Cyg
May 1	19 24.9	+57 17	86	10.8	Dra