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.  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...).  In 2003, I decided to build an observatory to house my 10" Meade Starfinder reflector.  It was a real challenge to design a building with a removable roof to satisfy my personal requirements.  The primary goal in the design of my observatory was to install a removable roof without the protruding railing system as seen in most "backyard observatories". I wanted a design that would appear to be an ordinary building/shop on my property when it wasn't being used.  Once I sketched out the design, I began the construction.  The primary dimensions are 16'x20' and the scope area measures an extra 8'x8'.  Instead of the roof of the 8'x8' room "rolling off", it is easily retracted inside the larger part of the building by means of a heavy duty electric garage door opener (see Observatory).  I now have a new scope installed.  It's a 12" Meade LX200 GPS and I have it set-up on a equatorial mount.

 

 

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 searches.

 

 

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 First Scope - many years ago...

 

 

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

 

 

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 09/02/2007 11:56 PM -0400

This web site has been active since March 1, 2006

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