周兴明（1965－2004）

2004年8月5日清晨，一个噩耗在中国大陆天文爱好者中间传播，并迅速越过疆界，传向各地。我国重量级资深业余天文学家，国际著名的“SOHO彗星猎手”周兴明先生因摩托车车祸逝世。周兴明先生是在出席在福建省福州市召开的“第六届海峡两岸天文推广教育研讨会”后，在去他的祖籍地－－福建省连城县探亲的途中，于2004年8月4日晚上8时30分左右，他所乘的载人摩托车遭遇另一辆摩托车的冲撞，头部受重伤导致昏迷，送医院抢救无效，于5日清晨5时逝世，享年39岁。噩耗传来，每个人都感到无比的震惊，悲痛和惋惜！

周兴明先生于1965年3月6日出生在中国最西北的新疆省博乐军垦农场89团。他有两个哥哥，一个弟弟。1985年他从兰州气象学校毕业后，到新疆“阿拉山口”（最西北的中国与哈萨克斯坦国边界）气象站从事气象预测工作。1993年后，在新疆博乐市州气象局担任计算机网络管理员。他从事过业务管理，参与单位的气象预报声像系统、编播系统二次开发、9210工程（气象卫星综合应用业务系统工程）以及计算机网络维护管理、气象业务应用软件、网络服务系统应用开发的建设和工作。博乐市，是周兴明先生生活和工作的地方，在那里他有一个幸福的家庭－－相濡以沫的妻子辛渝女士和他的10岁女儿周颖真。

周兴明先生兴趣天文始于1979年，他14岁。1983年5月11日，他第一次看到彗星C/1983d(Comet IRAS-Araki-Alcock)后，他将他的兴趣转向彗星的发现和观测。1989年6月22日前，他的寻彗仪器是口径55mm，放大率25x的小球测风经纬仪。之后，他使用自制的口径150mm,焦距800mm，放大率25x的寻彗镜（物镜由南京天仪厂提供），继续他的寻彗和观测。自1985年9月1日他正式开始寻找彗星到2004年4月15日为止，周兴明先生总共寻彗1705次，累积寻彗时间达1728小时7分钟。这期间，特别是在他的寻彗早、中期，在没有任何有关彗星信息的情况下（阿拉山口，博乐是个交通，通讯不畅的地方），周兴明先生独立找到20颗彗星和观测了许多已知的彗星。1985年10月17日他独立找到的彗星C/19851(C/1985R1, Comet Hartley-Good)被我国紫金山天文台的专家誉为“新中国成立后的第一个业余发现”。此外，他还发现彗星C/1990I(Comet Tsuchiya-Kuichi)和C/1995S1(122P/de Vice)，被CBAT及ICQ认可并通报他是这两颗彗星的独立发现者之一。

2000年底后，周兴明先生成为世界上最成功的SOHO彗星猎手之一，他总共发现了63颗SOHO彗星和一颗SWAN彗星(C/2004H6)，排名世界第四。由于他在SOHO彗星搜寻上的功臣般贡献，致使我国以发现总数71颗SOHO彗星而排名世界第五位。在他发现的SOHO彗星中，C/2001U9是最亮的克鲁兹族彗星之一，而C/2003G3则是最亮的非克鲁兹族彗星之一。Swan彗星的发现，促使他拟定他的下一个目标－－小行星的发现。很遗憾，他未能实现他的目标，却随着他的这颗SWAN彗星而去。为表彰他发现SOHO彗星的功绩，美籍华裔天文学家邵正元先生委托普委会在2004年8月2日“第6届海峡两岸天文推广教育研讨会”上颁发给他一套“世纪星图”(Millennium Star Atlas)，以资奖励。

同时，周兴明先生还是一位活跃的流星观测者。他对英仙座、猎户座、宝瓶座、牧夫座、天龙座和狮子座等流星雨的多年观测，已积累了50多个小时的观测数据资料。由于他的观测规范，质量高，这些观测数据资料得到国际流星组织(IMO)的专家Rainer Arlt的首肯，并被我国和国际上多位天文学家在学术论文上采用。

周兴明先生是中国天文学会会员，新疆省天文学会理事以及中国惟一的正式的业余天文刊物《天文爱好者》杂志的编委之一。他的网站－－“丝路天文”，包含了许多珍贵的有关SOHO彗星、彗星、流星资料以及他本人的观测成果和他的文章。这个网站是中国大陆最优秀的有关彗星的网站。《天文爱好者》杂志频繁地刊登他的见解独到，精辟易懂而又颇具指导性的文章。周兴明先生的过早逝世，是中国业余天文界的重大损失，也是世界彗星搜索领域的一大损失。

-------陈栋华

（此文发表在ICQ“International Comet Quarterly” 2004 7月刊（Vol. 26, No.3））

英文如下：

Xingming Zhou (1965-2004)

Early on the morning of 2004 August 5 (Beijing Time), we were shocked by the sad news that Xing-ming Zhou, one of the most outstanding Chinese amateur astronomers, died from a traffic accident at age 39. On the way back to his home (in Liancheng County) from attending the sixth Cross-Strait Astronomy Popularization and Education Workshop in Fuzhou city (all in Fujian Province), Zhou's motorbicycle happened to be struck by another at 8:30 p.m. on August 4, which caused a fatal head injury. Despite valiant attempts to save his life at a local hospital, Zhou died eventually at 5 a.m. on August 5. The bad news spread quickly via Internet, shocking many in the astronomy community worldwide.

On 1965 March 6, Zhou was born in the 89th District of Bole Production Constructive Unit, Xingjiang Province, in northwest China. He had two elder brothers and one younger brother. In 1985, he graduated from Lanzhou Meteorology School, then joined the Xinjiang A'lashankou Meteorology Station (which bordered Kazakhstan to the north). In 1993, he worked as computer network administrator in the State Aerography Bureau in Bole City, Xinjiang Province. Zhou was engaged in operation management and was concerned with (a) the development and establishment of a meteorological weather-forecast audio and video system; (b) the development of an editing and broadcasting system, the 9210 project (meteorological Information Combine Analysis Process System); (c) computer-network maintenance and administration; (d) application software for meteorological operation; and (e) network-service system application. Zhou lived and worked in Bole, where he had a happy family --- his wife, Yu Xin, and his ten-year-old daughter, Ying-zhen Zhou.

Zhou took great interest in astronomy beginning in 1979, when he was only 14 years old. On 1983 May 11, after observing the comet C/1983 H1 (IRAS-Arski-Alcock), he transferred his efforts to comet searching and observation. Before 1989 June 22, Zhou used a 55-mm-diameter (25x) aerological theodolite to search for comets. After this date, he used a self-made 150-mm-aperture f/5.3 refractor at 25x (the objective lens provided by NATRC) to watch the skies. From 1985 Sept. 1, when Zhou formally started comet searching, until 2004 Apr. 15, he had searched comets on 1705 different occasions, with 1728 hours and 7 minutes of accumulated searching time. During the time he searched for comets, especially in the early and middle periods, Zhou found 20 comets independently and observed many known comets, despite having little access to comet ephemerides (A'lashankou, Bole is a remote place where transportation and communication are difficult). On 1985 Oct. 17, he independently discovered the comet C/1985 R1, and this achievement was honored by the Purple Mountain Observatory as the first Chinese amateur finding since the founding of the People's Republic of China. Zhou's independent discoveries of comets C/1990 N1 and C/1995 S1 were recognized (cf. IAUC 5058; ICQ 17,161), though the news arrived too late for either comet to be named for him.

Starting in 2001, Zhou became one of the most successful SOHO-website comet hunters. Altogether, he found 63 SOHO comets and the SWAN comet C/2004 H6, ranking fouth in the world in this regard. Among the SOHO comets found by Zhou, C/2001 U9 was one of the brightest Kreutz-sungrazing comets and C/2003 G3 Was one of the brightest non-Kreutz comets. The finding of the SWAN comet encouraged him to pursue the new goal of finding minor planets. Unfortunately, this dream did not come true due to his untimely death. In order to honor his achievement on searching of SOHO comets, the well-known American-Chinese astronomer Cheng-yuan Shao bestowed him with a set of the Millennium Star Altas.

Zhou was also an active meteor observer. He observed many meteor showers and accumulated more than 50 hours' worth of observations that were collected by the International Meteor Organization and utilized by research astronomers in China and elsewhere. Zhou was a member of the Chinese Astronomical Society, councilor of the Xinjiang Astronomical Society, and the editor of the Chinese Amateur Astronomer magazine. His website 'Silk Road Astronomy Pages' (in Chinese, http://comet.lamost.org/) conveys a wealth of valuable information on meteors, SOHO comets, and non-SOHO comets, as well as his observing data and articles --- and has become the best comet website in China. Moreover, Amateur Astronomer magazine frequently published Zhou's insights and instructions regarding astronomical observing. Xing-ming Zhou's untimely passing is a great loss to Chinese amateur astronomy and to the international comet community.

------- Dong-hua Chen