Robert K. Buchheim

Here are links to some of the Papers reporting research projects at Altimira Observatory, plus a few other articles published in various venues. 

Asteroid Lightcurves:  Methods and lessons-learned creating asteroid phase curves.  Presented at Society for Astronomical Sciences 2010 Symposium.  By July 2010, the video of the presentation of this paper will probably be available on the SAS website (www.socastrosci.org).

Photometric Study of 371 Bohemia:  An international collaboration resulted in this report – one of my first sucessful asteroid lightcurve projects – published in the Minor Planet Bulletin.

Lessons from Bohemia:  By conducting an asteroid lightcurve project (see above) I learned something new about the asteroid, but more importantly I learned quite a bit about the trials, pitfalls, and excitement of doing "real science" in my backyard.  This report was presented at the 2004 Symposium of the Society for Astronomical Sciences.

Lightcurve of 755 Quintilla:  This was a cross-country collaboration to get a very clean lightcurve of this asteroid.

Lightcurve of 147 Protogenia:  In case you're wondering whether anyone uses those reports that are published in the Minor Planet Bulletin ... This was a routine lightcurve project to determine the rotation period of this asteroid.  Shortly after it was published, I received an e-mail from a grad student in China (Xi-Lian Zhang) requesting a copy of my raw data.  He combined my data with his, and published this report.  His follow-up note thanked me for helping him earn his PhD.

A successful observation:  When I was a kid, extra-solar planets were the stuff of science fiction.  Now we know that they are out there, and we are learning quite a bit about them.  Still, it’s pretty amazing to me that an amateur observer with his backyard telescope can detect them!

Astronomical Hazards:  Oh, dear – there are many scary things that can go “bump” in the night, and waylay the hapless astronomer.

Second-order Extinction:  Good news for those of us who do photometry from low-altitude observing sites – second-order extinction is pretty modest, and doesn’t change significantly, so the standard methods that professional astronomers use to compensate for it will also work in our backyards.

A new variable star:  There are celestial objects and events that still await discovery, and backyard scientists can indeed find them!  Here’s my report to the Information Bulletin on Variable Stars, reporting the discovery of a previously-uncatalogued variable star.  Not only are the brightness changes quite dramatic, but it was pretty simple to see how the color (temperature) changes as the star pulsates.

CCD Double-star measurements:  The amateur’s CCD imager can be a very accurate astrometric engine, helping to maintain the database of double-star motions and orbits.  This report was published in the Journal of Double Star Observations.

If you would like the raw data from any of the above projects, e-mail me at:

   oca_bob "AT" yahoo.com