Farm Cove Observatory
Encyclopedia
Farm Cove Observatory is an amateur astronomical observatory
in Pakuranga, Auckland
, New Zealand
. Built in 2000, the observatory has a Meade
LX200R 14" Schmidt-Cassegrain F/10 telescope, purchased and on loan from Ohio State University Astronomy Dept. The observatory uses an SBIG ST8XME CCD
camera with clear filter for data acquisition, this camera was supplied recently by the Centre for Backyard Astrophysics. FCO is only used for astronomical research.
Farm Cove Observatory takes part in cataclysmic variable star
(CV) research for the Center for Backyard Astrophysics and is also known as CBA Pakuranga. Up to January 2006, FCO has contributed over 1400 hours of data to the CBA, and the data from this observatory has been used in a number of scientific papershttp://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+McCormick_J/0/1/0/all/0/1.
In April 2004 Farm Cove Observatory joined the MicroFUN collaboration http://www-astronomy.mps.ohio-state.edu/~microfun/microfun.html headed by Professor Andrew Gould at Ohio State University
. The mission of MicroFUN is to obtain intense photometric monitoring of high magnification gravitational microlensing
events in the hope of detecting planets orbiting the lensing star
. Most of these events are found in the dense star fields of the bulge of the Milky Way
galaxy
.
The first success came in April 2005 when an exoplanet was detected in the event OGLE-2005-BLG-071http://www-astronomy.mps.ohio-state.edu/~microfun/ob05071/ http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0505451. The discovery was attributed to 31 professional astronomers and two amateurs. FCO contributed 12 hours of observations to this event. This new planet is about three times the mass of Jupiter
and lies some 15,000 light-years toward the Galactic Bulge
. This was only the second exoplanet detected by this technique and the first exoplanet discovery involving amateur observations.
Recently, FCO has been contributing unfiltered magnitude measures to the British Astronomical Association
campaign on Blazar
OJ+287.
Jennie McCormick discovered asteroid 2009sa1 at the observatory in September 2009.
Observatory
An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geology, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed...
in Pakuranga, Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. Built in 2000, the observatory has a Meade
Meade
Meade Instruments Corporation is a multinational company headquartered in Irvine, California, that manufactures, imports, and distributes telescopes, binoculars, spotting scopes, microscopes, CCD cameras and telescope accessories for the consumer market. It is the world's largest manufacturer of...
LX200R 14" Schmidt-Cassegrain F/10 telescope, purchased and on loan from Ohio State University Astronomy Dept. The observatory uses an SBIG ST8XME CCD
Charge-coupled device
A charge-coupled device is a device for the movement of electrical charge, usually from within the device to an area where the charge can be manipulated, for example conversion into a digital value. This is achieved by "shifting" the signals between stages within the device one at a time...
camera with clear filter for data acquisition, this camera was supplied recently by the Centre for Backyard Astrophysics. FCO is only used for astronomical research.
Farm Cove Observatory takes part in cataclysmic variable star
Cataclysmic variable star
Cataclysmic variable stars are stars which irregularly increase in brightness by a large factor, then drop back down to a quiescent state...
(CV) research for the Center for Backyard Astrophysics and is also known as CBA Pakuranga. Up to January 2006, FCO has contributed over 1400 hours of data to the CBA, and the data from this observatory has been used in a number of scientific papershttp://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+McCormick_J/0/1/0/all/0/1.
In April 2004 Farm Cove Observatory joined the MicroFUN collaboration http://www-astronomy.mps.ohio-state.edu/~microfun/microfun.html headed by Professor Andrew Gould at Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
. The mission of MicroFUN is to obtain intense photometric monitoring of high magnification gravitational microlensing
Gravitational microlensing
Gravitational microlensing is an astronomical phenomenon due to the gravitational lens effect. It can be used to detect objects ranging from the mass of a planet to the mass of a star, regardless of the light they emit. Typically, astronomers can only detect bright objects that emit lots of light ...
events in the hope of detecting planets orbiting the lensing star
Star
A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...
. Most of these events are found in the dense star fields of the bulge of the Milky Way
Milky Way
The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Solar System. This name derives from its appearance as a dim un-resolved "milky" glowing band arching across the night sky...
galaxy
Galaxy
A galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system that consists of stars and stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and an important but poorly understood component tentatively dubbed dark matter. The word galaxy is derived from the Greek galaxias , literally "milky", a...
.
The first success came in April 2005 when an exoplanet was detected in the event OGLE-2005-BLG-071http://www-astronomy.mps.ohio-state.edu/~microfun/ob05071/ http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0505451. The discovery was attributed to 31 professional astronomers and two amateurs. FCO contributed 12 hours of observations to this event. This new planet is about three times the mass of Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
and lies some 15,000 light-years toward the Galactic Bulge
Bulge (astronomy)
In astronomy, a bulge is a tightly packed group of stars within a larger formation. The term almost exclusively refers to the central group of stars found in most spiral galaxies...
. This was only the second exoplanet detected by this technique and the first exoplanet discovery involving amateur observations.
Recently, FCO has been contributing unfiltered magnitude measures to the British Astronomical Association
British Astronomical Association
The British Astronomical Association is the senior national association of amateur astronomers in the UK.-Function:It encourages observational astronomy by non-professionals in areas which cannot be covered by professional observatories...
campaign on Blazar
Blazar
A blazar is a very compact quasar associated with a presumed supermassive black hole at the center of an active, giant elliptical galaxy...
OJ+287.
Jennie McCormick discovered asteroid 2009sa1 at the observatory in September 2009.