Donald Edward Machholz (October 7, 1952 – August 9, 2022) was an American astronomer. He was a well known visual comet discoverer. It was said he helped discover 12 comets. Machholz spent more than 9,000 hours comet-hunting in a career, which lasted over 50 years.[1][2] Machholz was one of the inventors of the Messier Marathon.
Machholz died on August 9, 2022 at his ranch in Mohave County, Arizona at the age of 69.[3]