Awesome! This asteroid is named after a Taizhou person

Recently, the Small Body Nomenclature Working Group of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) released the latest issue of "WGSBN Bulletin". The asteroid with the permanent number 514986 discovered by Mr. Cai Yuansheng was officially named "Zhang Weiguo Star".

Zhang Weiguo, online name Fang Zhou, is from Linhai, Taizhou, Zhejiang. He was born in June 1979. He is a member of the Jiusan Society and the Chinese Astronomical Society. He is currently the vice president of Taizhou Astronomical Society and Lijiang Astronomical Association, and the general manager of Yunnan Lijiang Star Technology Co., Ltd. and Zhejiang Kuocang Optical Instrument Co., Ltd.

Since he was young, Zhang Weiguo's greatest pleasure in life has been stargazing and photographing the stars. He often goes to Kuacang Mountain in Linhai with his like-minded friends to observe and try to unravel the mysteries of the starry sky.

In 2010, Zhang Weiguo was delighted to find that more and more Taizhou citizens had developed a keen interest in astronomy. In order to give everyone a "home" to share the joy of observing the starry sky, with the strong support of Taizhou Association for Science and Technology and other units, he took the lead in establishing the Taizhou Astronomical Society and served as its deputy secretary-general.

Taizhou Astronomical Society often holds activities and has invited experts, citizens and children to climb Kuacang Mountain to observe celestial phenomena, including partial solar eclipses, total lunar eclipses, and meteor showers. They were also surprised to witness the romantic brush between the once-in-8,000-year Comet "Lovely" and the Earth.

In order to have more time to devote to astronomy and popular science work, Mr. Zhang Weiguo resolutely quit his stable job and started astronomy work for 15 hours a day. He also made friends with astronomy enthusiasts from all over the country and learned about excellent astronomical observation bases at home and abroad, especially the Gaomeigu Observatory of Yunnan Astronomical Observatory in Lijiang. In the local Naxi language, Gaomeigu means "a place higher than the sky". It is 3,193 meters above sea level and has an average of 254 clear nights per year. It is one of the most important astronomical observation bases in southern my country.

In August 2017, the "Lijiang Gemini Astronomical Manor" which had been in preparation for nearly two years was officially established in Gaomeigu. After nearly six years of hard work, the "Gemini Astronomical Manor" has grown into one of the best private astronomical observation bases in the country, with more than 50 remote automated astronomical telescope systems from home and abroad. Even astronomy enthusiasts in North America can remotely control Gaomeigu's equipment through the Internet to observe celestial bodies and take starry sky photos.

In order to further promote astronomy popularization, Zhang Weiguo also worked with enthusiasts from all walks of life to establish the Lijiang Astronomy Association and Changzhou Astronomy Society, and played an important role in them. During this period, he successfully organized and completed a number of astronomy popularization activities, including the Taizhou Astronomy Knowledge Competition, the 2019 solar eclipse observation activities, serving as a judge for the 14th Asia-Pacific Astronomy Olympiad, the Geminid meteor shower observation, and the promotion of the construction of the Gaomei Ancient Dark Sky Reserve.

In his 20 years of hobby in astronomy, Zhang Weiguo has made many outstanding achievements. His photograph of the M42 Orion Nebula won the second prize in the 6th National Astronomical Photography Competition; many of his astronomical photography works have appeared in many media magazines such as "Astronomy Enthusiasts" hosted by the Beijing Planetarium; at the same time, he is also a senior astronomical system hardware expert and popular science worker in China, and holds many astronomy-related invention patents.

In recent years, in particular, a large-scale twin observatory has been built in Gaomeigu, Lijiang, providing a stable astronomical observation platform for astronomy enthusiasts and scientific research institutions. At present, the cooperating units include the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing Planetarium, Yunnan Astronomical Observatory, Department of Astronomy of Xihua University, China Meteorological Satellite Center, Beijing Remote Sensing Institute, China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics, Changchun Institute of Optics, Precision Mechanics and Physics, Xiamen University, Macau Science and Technology Museum, Hong Kong Astronomical Society, Taizhou Astronomical Society, etc.

As the popularization of astronomy in China has begun to show results, Zhang Weiguo is looking for more and better astronomical observation bases, such as Daocheng in Sichuan, Lenghu in Qinghai, and even the Atacama Desert in Chile, far away in the southern hemisphere, in an effort to provide services to more scientific researchers and enthusiasts.

"Next, I plan to build a remote observatory in South America and connect it with the Gemini Observatory in Yunnan to achieve full-sky observation and make more contributions to astronomical research and popular science education," said Zhang Weiguo.

Let us wish together that the dream will come true soon, for the sake of China's astronomical cause, for the "star chasers", and for this "Zhang Weiguo Star"!