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David joined the Canberra Astronomical Society in 2002 and was immediately introduced to the scientific side of the hobby by CAS members involved in Lunar occultation's.  However, this did not satisfy his appetite for scientific work and in late 2002, with the purchase of a relatively small CCD camera, he began astrometric follow-up of asteroids and comets and earnt his Minor Planet Centre (MPC) observatory code (E14).  

During 2002 he was invited to participate as a Service Observer on the Mt Stromlo Observatory 74" scope as part of the MICROFUN project (search for extrasolar planets using gravitational microlensing events).  This lasted the entire observing season where he learnt a great deal about observatory practices, observation scheduling and data analysis.  It was hoped that further opportunities would make themselves available but the Canberra bushfires of January 2003 destroyed the observatory and all it's scope.

Since then David has performed many thousands of astrometric observations of Minor Planets, NEO's and Comets and has since moved onto Minor Planet Lightcurves of both bright main belt objects and the larger NEO's.  David also performs Asteroidal Occultations and Southern Variable Star observations and is a member of the AAVSO.