@americo-eric-watkins
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Registered: 10 years, 8 months ago
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:8.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:107%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} My interest in astronomy, began at eight years old with my father telling me that the Sun was really a star, a fact he gleaned from watching the "Sky at Night" the previous evening. One night he pointed out the Plough and Pole star to me resulting in me locating the brighter constellations. Aged 12 years I won a ten shilling book token for a school poetry recital competition and purchased Patrick Moore’s, “Observers Book of Astronomy", and yes like many of you my life changed as a result. My Christmas present for 1969 was a 2nd hand equatorial mounted Tasco 4.5" reflector and I joined the BAA in February of 1970 and later the Lunar Section, concentrating on TLP searches. Several years later whilst at college I purchased a second-hand Astronomical Equipment (AE) 10" Newtonian reflector on a “B” equatorial mount and later in the mid 1980's an 16" F:6 Newtonian reflector mounted on an AE “C “mount. Shamefully, these two telescopes saw very little action due to university courses, full time work and most recently several years of serious illness. The overall result is that I am retired early and have now dedicated all of my time to amateur research and have established a new modern observatory. I also use remote robotic telescopes. My interests now are purely research based, namely, asteroids/centaurs, T3 active asteroids, SdB post-common envelope binary stars with putative circumbinary planets. I have recently begun to record Exoplanet transits intending to join or develop an observing programme. I have determined the previously un-reported rotation periods of 6 asteroids, confirmation images of T3 asteroid activity and I have recently with other BAA members co-authored an academic paper published in "Astronomy & Astrophysics”, A&A 611, A48 (2018), concerning SdB binary stars and circumbinary planets. I have to thank BAA members Dr. R. Miles, (ARPS director), Roger Dymock and Brian Warner for all their help and encouragement with my asteroid/centaur research, also to the members/co-authors of the SdB binary star group who allowed me to join and from whom I have learnt so much. I am a FRAS and a member of the AAVSO, ALPO and SAS (Society for Astronomical Sciences)
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