Lucjan Orkisz, then a young astronomer working at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, spotted the object in the early hours of April 3, 1925, while testing a newly acquired telescope at a mountain observatory station in southern Poland.
According to Elżbieta Kuligowska of the Jagiellonian University's Astronomical Observatory, the discovery was a major milestone for Polish science, occurring just a few years after the country regained independence in 1918.
Although comets were likely observed in Polish territories before this time, Orkisz's find was the first to be formally recorded by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) as the work of a Polish astronomer.
Kuligowska said that the event sparked recognition from observatories worldwide and inspired the production of a short educational silent film, The Discovery of Comet Orkisz.
Created by Szczęsny Mysłowicz, who would later found the Polish Film Institute Lumen, the film aimed to highlight the significance of the Polish astronomer's achievement.
At the time, comet discoveries were highly prestigious and brought considerable recognition to both the individual astronomer and their observatory. Orkisz’s find was no exception.
On the morning of April 3, 1925, Orkisz noticed a faint nebula in the Pegasus constellation. Unable to identify it in known star catalogues, he realised he had found a previously unrecorded object. It was later confirmed to be a non-periodic comet – one which passes near the Sun only once and is unlikely to return.
Orkisz studied the comet’s orbit for several years, eventually defending a doctoral thesis on the subject in 1931.
The comet was designated C/1925 G1 (Orkisz), with the "C" indicating its non-periodic nature.
Born in 1899, Orkisz was the son of a museum employee at Jagiellonian University. He joined the university observatory as a student in 1920 and by 1924 was appointed head of a newly established mountain observation station on Mount Łysina (now known as Mount Lubomir) in the Beskid Wyspowy range. It was there that he made his discovery.
The Mount Lubomir station, named in honor of Prince Kazimierz Lubomirski who donated the land, gained a reputation in the 1930s as an important centre for astronomical research.
Among its later directors was Rozalia Szafraniec, a trailblazing astronomer and mathematician after whom the Swiss Metzerlegen observatory is named.
C/1936 O1 (Kaho-Kozik-Lis)
Another comet discovery followed in 1936, when Władysław Lis, a technician at the station, spotted a new object on his way to work. His find was shared with two other astronomers– Polish-born Stefan Kozik, working in Tashkent, and Japanese observer Sigeru Kaho.
The comet was later designated C/1936 O1 (Kaho-Kozik-Lis).
The Mount Lubomir observatory was destroyed by German forces in 1944 during World War II.
In 2003, a local committee was formed to rebuild it. A foundation stone was laid in July 2006, exactly 70 years after Lis' discovery, and the rebuilt Tadeusz Banachiewicz Astronomical Observatory officially opened in October 2007, named after the Jagiellonian University professor who invented the chronocinematograph, a device for precise observation of solar eclipses.
(rt/gs)
Source: dzieje.pl, uj.edu.pl