Red Barn Observatory MPC/IAU H68

Established 2006

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Steve E. Farmer Jr.

Astronomer Profile

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My name is Steve E. Farmer Jr. and I reside near a very small town in Georgia, USA called Ty Ty.  I am a government employee working for the Georgia Department of Agriculture as a Food Safety Inspector, an active Certified Firefighter, a volunteer for the Red Cross Disaster Action Team, a husband, and a father of four.  Born in June 1974, I have always been interested and involved in Astronomy - particularly in objects that appear to move in the sky (planets, meteors, comets, asteroids, etc...)  I received my first real telescope when I was around 8 years old (see photo below) - and it went from there.  In 2003, I decided to build an observatory to house my 10" Meade Starfinder reflector.  The Starfinder is a great telescope for visual work, but I needed more to really see the asteroids and comets!  So, in 2006, I purchased a 12" LX200 GPS SCT and was able to use this telescope to obtain an "official" observatory code.  This telescope and a SBIG ST-7 was enough to get me started in Astrometry.   With the 12" LX200 mounted in the observatory (see Observatory), I had the set-up I needed.

My First Scope - many years ago...

 

 

 

 

 

  

My Telescopes and Astronomy Equipment:


12" Meade LX200 GPS Equatorial Mounted
10" F4.5 Equatorial Mounted Reflector
(Added JMI Reverse Crayford Focuser)

4 1/2" Equatorial Mounted Reflector
Several Meade & Celestron Eyepieces: 9mm through 40mm
2x Meade Barlow
SBIG ST-7
Two computers installed in the observatory for control

of the telescope and SBIG camera, one "in home" computer

for image processing and asteroid/comet studies.

 

 

Member of:
The Planetary Society
NAMN North American Meteor Network
Georgia Fireball Network


Participant in:
Stardust@Home
SETI@Home & SOHO Comet Searches

Observatory:  Red Barn Observatory

MPC/IAU H68

Web Site:  www.cometary.net

 

 

 

 

My SOHO Comet Discoveries ------------------13 SOHO comets to date and still searching...

Comet # DATE NAME GROUP TELESCOPE q (perihelion)

1.

2004 Dec 3

C/2004 X4
SOHO-875

Kreutz

C3, C2

0.0049

2.

2005 Aug 18

C/2005 Q5
SOHO-1004

Kreutz

C3

0.0048

3.

2005 Aug 25

C/2005 Q7
SOHO-1007

Kreutz

C3

0.0048

4.

2005 Aug 30

C/2005 Q9
SOHO-1009

Kreutz

C3

0.0051

5.

2005 Dec 19

C/2005 Y1
SOHO-1071

Non-Group

C2

0.0983

6.

2005 Dec 27

C/2005 Y9
SOHO-1078

Kreutz

C3, C2

0.0043

7.

2006 Jan 13

C/2006 A7
SOHO-1089

Kreutz

C3

0.0049

8.

2006 Feb 6

C/2006 C2

SOHO-1098

Kreutz

C3

0.0061

9.

2006 Feb 10

C/2006 C3

SOHO-1099

Kreutz

C3

0.0052

10.

2006 Feb 20

C/2006 D3

SOHO-1103

Kreutz

C3

0.0050

11.

2006 Feb 28

C/2006 D6

SOHO-1106

Kreutz

C3

0.0054

12.

2006 July  12

C/2006 N1
SOHO-1171

Kreutz

C3, C2

0.0056

13.

2006 Oct. 19

SOHO-1204

Kreutz

C3, C2

 0.0048

 

Other Hobbies:

                        Archaeology - Native American artifacts 

                        Fishing - particularly 100m long-cast surf fishing

                        Guitar - Playing since I was 15

                        Reading, Studying, Thinking...

 

 

 

 

Yahoo Groups of Interest:

         
stardustathome
sohohunter
comets-ml
comet_hunters

Asteroid_Hunters

 

 

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Copyright © 2006 The Cometary Space Web of Steve E. Farmer Jr.

Last modified 08/31/2010 02:19 PM -0700

This web site has been active since March 1, 2006

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