Who are some of the astronomy enthusiasts that patiently observe galaxies seeking
feeble light from exploding stars? Where do they observe? What kind of instruments do they
use? How can they be contacted? Meet them in this page!
Robert Evans, Australia
lives in Coonabarabran, New South Wales and he is a minister of the Uniting Church in
Australia, Warrumbungle Parish. He began his visual hunt in 1980 with a 25cm telescope and
has since discovered 30 supernovae. Currently he uses a 41cm and has limited access to the
1 meter telescope of Siding Spring. He is the chairman of the AAVSO Supernovae Search
Committee.
lives in Forlì, Italy, and he works in a factory as accountant. He began to hunt SNe
since 1990 with good luck: he discovered SN 1991T in NGC 4527, SN 1994W in NGC 4041 and
1998bu in NGC 3368. Before '90s he observed variable stars. He received the
"A.A.V.S.O. Nova Award" and "G.Ruggieri" prize in 1995 for his
discoveries and for good work done in Unione Astrofili Italiani Supernovae Section. His
address is: C.P.7114 - 47100 Forlì, Italy.
lives in Rolvenden, England. He searches supernovae with a 10 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain
telescope coupled with a Starlight Xpress CCD camera. He is a member of the UK supernova
patrol of The Astronomer network.
Michael Schwartz lives in Cottage Grove, Oregon. His discoveries include SN1997cx,
SN1997da, SN1997db and SN 1998ci using a 14" (.36m) F/12 telescope, Apogee AP7 CCD
camera and a Software Bisque automated ParaMount 1100. A 32" (.83m) F7 automated
telescope is currently under construction and will be placed in Arizona. Please check his
web site at http://www2.netcom.com/~pfactors/tenagra.html.
lives in Milan, Italy, where he works in an insurance company. His first interest in
supernova hunting dates to 1989, after a decade of variable star and deep sky observing.
He hunts visually for supernovae using Dobsonian telescopes of 35cm and 50cm in diameter.
His observing sites are in the Alps near Milan or in the Apennines, usually 100 to 150km
from Milan. He manages 3500 to 4000 observation of galaxies per year on a program of some
600 of the closest galaxies. He has co-dicovered SN 1995al in NGC 3021 and SN 1996bk in
NGC 5308 with his friend Piero Mazza, also a supernova hunter. He is also a telescope
maker, on cloudy nights only! His address: Via Birolli 3, 20125 Milan, Italy.
Piero Mazza, Italy
lives in Milan, Italy, and he is by profession a musician in the Civic Orchestra. He
was a keen deep sky observer before falling in love with galaxies and supernova hunting.
He currently uses a 40cm Dobsonian telescope and hunts visually in the 400 closest
galaxies. He usually observes with Stefano Pesci and with him he has co-discovered SN
1995al. He can be reached at Stefano Pesci's e-mail address or at: Via Melloni 24, 20129
Milan, Italy.
Currently resides in Midlothian, Illinois USA is an "over-the-road" truck
driver, who expediates commodities throughout the midwestern region of the U.S. His
interest in supernovae work, began in 1985, when he saw a need to establish a verification
team to monitor sightings of suspect supernovae in various galaxies. His small team
SUNSEARCH,(SUperNovae SEARCH) made their first confirmed discovery in NGC 2336
(1987L)(Dana Patchick). Steve, just missed reconfirming the SN in NGC 3627(M66) two days
earlier than the confirmed confirmation date due to overcast conditions (IAUC #t4735).
Four more events, which were on the teams observing list, were missed due to weather
conditions, and/or assigned galaxies not being monitored at the time of outburst. The team
disbanded in 1991. Due to severe light pollution and recent work constraints, searching
for supernovae has become all but impossible, so he prefers to provide tools to other
interested supernovae observers (in the form of monitoring programs), a Virgo Cluster
search program is planned for release in the near future, and will be made available thru
the I.S.N. Home page. Steve, hopes to avail himself to the efforts of the I.S.N. in any
capacity as the founders deem helpful.
live in Sydney where Pete is a pilot with Qantas Airways and Bobbie is a nurse. They
started supernova hunting in 1995 and use a ten inch Dobsonian. They are members of the
South East Queensland Astronomical Society.
uses a CCD for his search and he has discovered independently SN1994I in M51.
uses a 41cm f/12 Cassegrain telescope at St. Mary University coupled to a CCD. He has
co-discovered SN1995F in NGC 2726.
lives in Victoria, British Columbia. He has been a member of the AAVSO since 1961 and
has contributed over 33,000 (visual) variable star estimates. Most of his visual observing
is done with an 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. He has been searching (visually) for
supernovae for many years. But, alas, without success! He hopes to enter the CCD field one
day.
both use the 41cm f/12 Cassegrain telescope at St. Mary University coupled to a CCD.
Paul has codiscovered with David Lane SN1995F.
He lives in La Spezia, Italy, where he was born in 1964. He has been a supernovae
hunter since 1989. At first he searched S.N. visually, but, in 1991, with the diffusion of
the C.C.D., he began to make reserches with them. Since 1992 has been using a ST-6 coupled
to a 16 inch f/8 Ritchey-Cretien telescope on Mount Visseggi Observatory of La Spezia.
Besides, now he has the HI-SIS 22. He has a photometry filters for C.C.D. on B V R bands
of the Bessel series (thick 4mm) through usually get, on photometry at all sky, the
accuracy of 0.08 mg in blue, 0.02 mg on green and 0.02 mg on red.
He lives in Loganholme, Queensland and is a member of the Southern Astronomical Society
. He searches with a 14.5 inch Dobsonian telescope.
He is a member of the Orange County Astronomers club located in Anza, California. He
searches with various telescopes, among them OCA's 22 inch, and a Starlight Xpress CCD.
He lives in Ipswich, Queensland and is a member of the Southern Astronomical Society
and Brisbane Astronomical Society, both in south east Queensland, Australia. He searches
with an LX200 and a ST7 CCD. Recently he confirmed the discovery of 1996X by Evans and
Takamizawa.
He lives in New Zealand and searches supernovae with an 18 inch telescope on a
programme of bright galaxies.
He lives in Medford, MA and uses a 12.5" f/4.8 dob, visual only. He generally
observes from a site with a 5.3-5.7 limiting mag. Other sites are 1-3 hours' drive from
his home, with LMs ranging as low as 7.2. He's also a regular meteor observer for IMO and
a deep sky observer.
Alan Thomson, Australia
He's an engineer by profession and when hunting SNs he uses a 20" telescope. With
Peter and Bobbie Elston he is part of a group of amateurs coordinated by Ian Wilson.
Please contact him at Peter's e-mail.
He is a pilot with British Airways and lives in Guildford, UK. He observes visually
using an 18" Dobsonian, and also takes part in the UK Supernova Patrol with fellow
members from the Guildford Astronomical Society.
belongs to the Riverside Astronomical Society (RAS) and the Orange County Astronomers
(OCA) and he is known as Mr. Galaxy because of his long interest in those objects. He has
been searching for SNe since about 1988 and became more serious about it after viewing M66
the night before Bob Evans in January of 1989 found the SN in it! Primarily he uses the
OCA's 22-inch Cassegrain at f/4 along with a Patterson Electronics CCD camera for his
searches, though he always checks the field visually first to determine whether the SN
suspect can be detected by eye. Typically he takes 60-second exposures with the CCD cooled
to -30 degrees F so that his limiting magnitude is about 19th magn unfiltered. The
telescope is located in a roll-off roof observatory on a 20-acre site near the town of
Anza, California, USA in the high desert at 4350 feet above sea level. It is about 15 air
miles north of Palomar Mountain Observatory. He is the first amateur SN hunter to find two
SNe in one night, though that feat has now been duplicated. Unfortunately, the OCA
Observatory is over an hour away from his house so that his searches have been limited to
an occasional weekend or two per month because of his work schedule as an electronics
engineer for Boeing, a common complaint for most of us! On a typical night he will image
about 50 galaxies and has an archive of a couple thousand images. He really enjoys hunting
for SNe and knowing the people around the world involved in it. It's nice to see changes
happening in galaxies and it's fun to be among the first to see those changes occurring
and to follow up on the discoveries made by others. Check out his web site. |
