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Interested in Stargazing, Observing, Choosing a Telescope, or for an Introduction to Astronomy?
See our set of suggested resources and starting places in the links near the bottom.
Notable Observations and Accomplishments
- Conducted a survey of
meteorites
and
micrometeorites
at and near the
South Pole
and on the
Union Glacier
in the
Ellsworth
Mountains
of Antarctica as part of the
2011
Expedition to Antarctica and during return
expedition of Janurary 2013.
- Observed shadow bands during the 2010 July 11 and 2012 Nov 14 Total Solar Eclipses.
- Published "The Instability of Jupiter's Moons",
Sky and Telescope,
April 2010, Pages 30-31.
- Searched for Vulcanoid asteroids during the
Libya 2006
Total Solar Eclipse Expedition,
the Gobi China 2008 Total Solar Eclipse Expedition, and
the Enewetok 2009 Total Solar Eclipse Expedition.
- Presented "The search for Vulcanoid Asteroids
at the
Solar Eclipse Conference 2007
(SEC 2007).
- Published
"The search for Vulcanoid asteroids"
(Sky and Telescope,
Jan 2006, Pages 87-89)
to encourage amateur astronomers to search for vulcanoid asteroids
during total solar eclipses.
Note that the link to the article
is a revised version (2008 May) of the original article and is available
by the kind permission of
Sky and Telescope.
- Calculated the mean
Sun/Earth distance -
using the 2nd & 3rd contact
timings of the 2004 June 8 Transit of Venus
149596765 km ± 3543 km (0.0237% uncertainty) -
AU error (ΔAU): 2437 km (0.0016%)
Solar parallax (Π): 8.79432" ± 0.00018" (0.0020% uncertainty) -
parallax error: (ΔΠ) 0.00010" (0.0011%)
- Confirmed Henry Norris Russell's 1874 claim that a
transit spot can be seen on Venus during transit -
Sky & Telescope: Nov 2004, p.80
- Detailed analysis of the F0V star HD 354069 -
1.6 solar mass,
1.77 solar radii,
407 parsecs - 2004 Aug 28
- Demonstrated that it is possible to observe a 0 second old new moon -
Observed the surface of the moon during middle of 2003 Nov 23
Total Solar Eclipse over Antarctica
Obtained the record for the sighting of the youngest moon possible -
Observed 0 second old during middle of
2003 Nov 23 Total Solar Eclipse over Antarctica:
Sky & Telescope: May 2004, p.121
- First to report that a
fire
Destroys the Mt. Stromlo Observatory to
Sky & Telescope: January 19, 2003
and helped raise donations for the
Mt. Stromlo Redevelopment and Bushfire Relief fund.
- Coined the term meteor squall to describe a significant but
not quite storm level meteor shower -
Sky & Telescope: March 2002, p.102
- Leonid 2001 meteor squall -
Observed Peak count of 2408 count/hr at the
Fremont Peak Observatory
- Observed effect of the 1999 Aug 11 total solar eclipse on ants -
Sky & Telescope: Nov 1999, p.122
- Sighted impact fireball of
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9
Fragment R
Collision with Jupiter -
Fremont Peak Observatory,
1994 July 21
- Visual identification of the Crab Nebula Pulsar -
Fremont Peak Observatory, 1987
- Observed
Supernova
1987A from Canberra Australia on 1987 Feb 24 (20 hrs after discovery) -
Observed color change and an increase in brightness
- Measured timing on numerous Total, Annular & Partial
Solar Eclipses -
Also recorded temperature changes, wind direction changes, sky condition
changes
during partial phases.
- I have observer the following solar eclipses (total, annual, hybrid, partial):
- 1970 Mar 07 - USA (total)
- 1972 Jul 10 - USA (partial)
- 1974 Dec 13 - USA (partial)
- 1977 Oct 12 - USA (partial)
- 1979 Feb 26 - USA (total)
- 1980 Aug 10 - USA (partial)
- 1984 May 30 - USA (annular)
- 1989 Mar 07 - USA (partial)
- 1991 Jul 22 - USA (total)
- 1992 Jan 04 - USA (annular)
- 1993 May 21 - USA (partial)
- 1994 May 10 - USA (annular)
- 1995 Oct 24 - Pacific (total)
- 1998 Feb 26 - Pacific (total)
- 1999 Aug 11 - Turkey (total)
- 2000 Dec 25 - USA (partial)
- 2001 Dec 14 - USA (partial)
- 2002 Dec 03 - Australia (total)
- 2003 Nov 23 - Antarctica (total)
- 2006 Mar 29 - Libya (total)
- 2008 Aug 01 - China (total)
- 2009 Jul 22 - Enewetok (total)
- 2010 Jul 11 - French Polynesia (total)
- 2012 Nov 13 - Australia (total)
- 2013 Nov 03 - Atlantic (total)
- 2015 Mar 30 - Arctic Polar Region (total)
- 2017 Aug 21 - USA (total)
- 2019 Jul 02 - near the Pitcairn Islands (total)
- 2023 Apr 20 - near NW Australia (total)
As of
$Date: 2023/04/12 03:07:07 $
above list includes 2838.6 seconds of totality!
- A talk for people planning to view the 2017 Aug 21 total solar eclipse.
- Tracked outer moons of Jupiter, Saturn & Uranus -
Fremont Peak Observatory: 1987 to date
Fremont Peak Observatory
Miscellaneous Astronomical Tables
Frankie Encalada was kind enough to convert the Stellar Classification Tables
into set of of comma separated value (spreadsheet) files.
Download and unpack this gzipped tarball:
stellar_classification_table_csv.tar.gz.
Astronomy Vita
See my
Astronomy Vita
for a detailed
history of my work in Astronomy.
Are you interested in Astronomy?
Stargazing and Observing basics
Choosing a telescope
Introduction to Astronomy
Exploring space
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