Comets why arent more of them found?

Question

Chances are about 50-50 that in any night scky there is at least one visible coment that has not been discovered. This keeps amateur astronomers busy looking, night after night because the discoverer of a comet recieives the honor of having it named for him or her. With this high probability of comets being visible in the sky, why arent more of them found

Answer 1

Have you ever looked at the sky? It's pretty big. Now imagine doing a thorough scan of the sky in a methodical fashion for something you're not sure even exists. It would be like sending all those amateur astronomers into a football stadium to find a needle one at a time. The odds are not so hot! Plus, maybe their telescopes aren't powerful enough to see the dimmer comets?

Answer 2

I can only answer this from my experience. I work in the movie industry but I'm interested in astronomy and all sciences. I once filmed at the home of famed comet hunter David Levy (Shoemaker Levy comet that crashed into Jupiter) and saw how he does it. Very simple. He has a large dobsonian telescope and he climbs up a ladder, sits, and scans the sky manually. He knows every part of the sky and every star or object in it. Any part of the sky he is looking at may contain 2 to 5 thousand stars and he is looking for something new. Incredible isn't it! You would think he used photography or some computer method, nope manually and by eye. So can he scan every part of the sky every night? No, he is a college professor by day so that limits his night time viewing. Out of all the amateur astronomers viewing every night how many do view the entire night sky? I'm curious about your 50 50 figure.