| Puckett Observatory | |
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| Location | Ellijay, Georgia, United States |
| Website cometwatch.com |
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Puckett Observatory is a private astronomical observatory located in the North Georgia Mountains, near Ellijay, Georgia, United States. It is owned and operated by Tim Puckett. Its primary observation goals are the study of comets and the discovery of supernovae. To facilitate the latter goal it sponsors the Puckett Observatory World Supernova Search whose astronomers have discovered 220 supernovae.[1][2]
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The Puckett Observatory houses two telescopes. The 60 cm (24”) Ritchey-Chrétien telescope was custom engineered and built by Puckett, and took nine years to complete, going online full-time in 1997. The telescope features a new type of hybrid disk/band worm drive designed by Puckett in 1993.
The other observatory telescope includes a Celetron C-14 Schmidt-Cassegrain with a Software Bisque's Paramount ME Robotic Telescope System.
The Puckett Observatory World Supernova Search was formed in 1998, with its principal investigator being Tim Puckett. The search consists of a team of amateur astronomers located in the United States, Canada and Italy. Observatories participating in the search include the Puckett Observatory, and telescopes located in Portal , Arizona (Jack Newton), and Osoyoos, BC (Ajai Sehgal).
The observatory uses computers to control the robotic telescopes and sends the images to volunteers via the Internet. Each image is manually compared ("blinked") to archive images. At least 40 hours each week are required to run the search operation, and Puckett is assisted by Tom Orff. All team members have contributed thousands of hours to analyzing the data. Past and present members include: Eric Briggs, Lou Cox , Debra Ceravolo, Peter Ceravolo , Tom Crowley , Robert Gagliano, Doug George, R. Scott Ireland, Brian Kerns, Anthony Kroes, Alex Langoussis, Caroline Moore, Robert Moore, Jack Newton, Mike O’Connor, Tom Orff, Andrea Pelloni, Mike Peoples, Ajai Sehgal, Ingrid Siegert, Giovanni Sostero, Jennifer Tigner. A complete list of the supernova discoveries, including IAU Circular references can be found on AstronomyOnline.
Timothy David Puckett (March 20, 1962–) was born in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, and is an amateur astronomer and astrophotographer with over 30 years experience. Experienced in the field of amateur CCD (digital) astro-imaging, Puckett has operated numerous CCD cameras since 1989. He has built several robotic telescopes and is currently operating an automated supernova search patrol and comet astrometry program which uses 60-cm and 35-cm telescopes.
Puckett’s photos of comets and deep-sky objects have been published in books and magazines in several countries, including Great Britain, Japan, Italy, Germany, Australia and South Africa. His work has also been featured on ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, CNN, BBC, The Discovery and Learning Channels and Good Morning America. Puckett is the Astronomy Sales Engineer for Apogee Instruments and a robotic-telescope consultant for professional observatories.
In recognition of Puckett’s contributions to the field of astronomy, asteroid PUCKETT = (32096) = 2000 KO38[3] was named in his honor.
Ratledge, David, ed. “The CometWatch Program.” The Art and Science of CCD Astronomy. London: Springer-Verlag, 1997. pp. 61–71