Don Machholz lugged his 100-pound homemade binocular apparatus to the summit of Loma Prieta, the highest peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains in Northern California, in search of a comet one hazy night in 1986. While scanning near the Andromeda galaxy, the astronomer spotted a bright, fuzzy object moving slowly against the stars. It was subsequently named 96P/Machholz—one of 12 comets he would bring to light throughout his lifetime.
After Machholz made this discovery on May 12, astronomers established the link between a summer meteor shower and its parent object, calculating that the Delta Aquariids separated from the comet’s nucleus roughly 20,000 years ago.
