Why I stopped my supernovae search project?

(SN 2019ehk case)



I searched supernovae from April 2014, discovering 12 new SNs. Currently, I have stopped this project.

For many years, I naively thought that the TNS (acting on behalf of the International Astronomical Union) was established
to ensure that discoveries won't be "stolen" by the fraudsters. I was wrong ! It's sad but there is lawlessness here.

It turns out that some astrophotographer can suddenly find in their resources a photo he took a month earlier,
but he didn't notice a supernova there. No wonder. Most often, astrophotographers do not check their images
for the appearance of a possible supernova. True is they do not have to do it. It's not their area of interest.
Now, after reading news in the media that there is a supernova there, astrophotographer noticed it. He reported it to his friends
working at the university. They "named" him the discoverer of this SN in their publication, violating the rules of crediting discoveries.
Impossible scenario? And yet, Wynn V. Jacobson-Galán and Raffaella Margutti (Northwestern University) proved that.
In other words they consider themselves more competent than IAU TNS to credit discoveries.

They ignored the official IAU TNS discovery certificate.

https://www.wis-tns.org/object/2019ehk/discovery-cert

It was irrelevant to them!


In the "Astrophysical Journal" they described Joel Shepherd as the discoverer of SN 2019ehk, which IS NOT TRUE!

OK. Everyone is allowed to be foolish or ignorant but I don't understand why "Astrophysical Journal" agrees to publish
false informations and doesn't care of reliable content? I send few emails to ApJ about it.

For an amateur, the supernova search project means a big effort at the expense of free time and thousands of hours sleepless at night.
To discover ONE supernova, I need to make an enormous number of 10,000-15,000 observations, not to mention the cost of the equipment
and its maintenance. I'm not professional. I don't have grants or salaries. "Recognition of discovery" is the only reward for me.
If you take it away, what is left ?

I decided that there is no point to engage in activity where established
rules are broken and those who should resolve this problem don't do it.




Finally, a question for Wynn V. Jacobson-Galán and Raffaella Margutti:
According to you - who is the discoverer of the well-known supernova SN 2014J ????
Well, perhaps this example (there are much more) will allow you finally understand.





<< HOME