CMJA

I have been an amateur astronomer since 1975 and, like most, have acquired progressively larger telescopes; the last two being housed in domed observatories (homemade and commercial).

I co-founded and have been the President of The Durham Region Astronomical Association since its inception in 2001.

Now retired (February 2014), I was a professional land use planner, and I have used my expertise in that area to build awareness in local government of the negative environmental effects of light pollution. These efforts have resulted in municipalities adopting policies and guidelines aimed at mitigating light pollution.

I became a member of the AAVSO in October 2010 and have embarked on a structured program of photometry with CCDs and automated telescope and dome control systems. My robotic telescope became operational on 2010-09-10; doing "snap-shot" CCD photometry of Bulletin Stars, time-series of CVs, and Special Requests through Johnson/Cousins BVRcIc filters. My first variable star observation of AM Her was submitted on 2010-09-13.

Submitted my 10,000th observation on 2014-04-20 02:40:18 UTC and currently have over 70,000 observations submitted.

Web Site: http://www.newcastleobservatory.ca
Twitter: https://twitter.com/newcastleobserv
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/michael.cook.9406
Skype: newcastleobservatory