Hunters Hill Observatory
Back in my Navy days, I had been trained in Astro Navigation (navigation by
the stars through the use of sextant, stopwatch and almanac) but I found the
task so arduous, I ventured toward the computing side and coming up with
software to do the job for me. I didn't get too far and my career
took a different path so I left astronomy behind.
Well more than 20 years went by when back in 2000, my interest was re-kindled
when I came upon what I thought was a large telescope on display in an
Australian Geographic Store - a Tasco 114mm reflector. I only had a vague
idea about what I was doing and no memory of what was up in the sky. The
moon was not up so after I set up the scope I pointed it to the brightest thing
in the night sky. It was Jupiter, and I was stunned. There in front
of me was the planet, a full disk with the hint of the GRS and 4 moons. I
was hooked. I then looked around for other bright objects. Saturn
was up and easy to find and the sight of Saturn and her rings was amazing.
That first night was a complete success and I couldn't wait to find out what
else what up there. In the following nights I looked for Nebula and
Galaxies but they were hard to find. I had no star charts and had no idea
how to star hop (and still don't) but I did scan and stumble upon a few objects
that I would revisit again and again for the next year.
In 2001 I joined the Canberra Astronomical Society and soon moved up to a new
Telescope. This time a Meade 8" LX90. A decent scope that would find
interesting objects for me. At that time, the only portable GOTO scopes in
the club were limited to a couple of ETX scopes and my reliance on the GOTO
functionality earned me the title of "the lazy astronomer". That scope
served me well and was a hit at numerous public nights and school events.
But I soon lost interest in simply looking at things. I wanted to do some
science and start recording what I was seeing.
Occultation's were my first venture and this taught me the importance of
reliable technique and process. Then I got the opportunity of a lifetime.
Mt Stromlo were looking for Service Observers for the 2002 observing season.
We were to get training on the use of the Mountains 74" telescope, the CCD and
the means of taking images - and we would be paid to boot. I jumped at the
chance and participated for the entire season (we were observing microlensing
events for the MicroFUN team out of Ohio State University under Dr David Depoy).
Unfortunately the observatory was destroyed in the Canberra Bushfires of 2003
and no further opportunities were available. But the experience got me
interested in CCD imaging and I soon purchased by first camera, a Starlight
Xpress MX516 CCD and started taking pictures. Unfortunately, although a
great visual telescope, the LX90 range of telescopes had poor pointing and
tracking performance for CCD imaging so I needed a new scope.
Well years have gone by and the observatory has seen numerous new CCD cameras
and telescopes. The primary work undertaken at HHO is Minor Planet
Photometry. Having been at the more advanced end of amateur photometry for
almost a decade, I find that I am fairly readily accepted into the fold of
professional collaborations and participate in BINAST and MicroFUN projects.
I also do requests from my Professional counterparts where time permits and
welcome collaboration and mentoring opportunities with other amateurs around the
world.
In 2006 I enrolled in the Master of Science (Astronomy) at Swinbourne
University. The course was undertaken online and wasn't cheap (I never did
get a full tertiary education) and I managed to complete the first 4 units but
then dropped out (HD's in all units). I had achieved the Graduate
Certificate level but could not justify the expense. After all, I could
buy a new Telescope or a new CCD camera with the money required to complete the
course!
In 2005 I was awarded a Gene Shoemaker NEO Grant by the Planetary Society and
repeated the achievement in 2010. These grants have gone toward the cost
of replacing the observatories CCD cameras. The observatory averages
500hrs of observations over approx 80 nights a year and is capable of NEO
astrometric observations to magnitude 22 and precision photometry down to
magnitude 16.5. It is now fitted with a medium resolution spectrograph and
will soon undertake spectrographic observation of newly discovered eclipsing
binary stars (these discoveries are a side effect of my asteroid photometry).
So there you have it. A university dropout, but I do have a large
number of discoveries to my name, not to mention an asteroid named in my honour
(33750 DaveHiggins). What more could I want! (well some more
telescopes and cameras would be good)
