William D. Ferris

William D. Ferris (born December 2, 1961) is an American amateur astronomer and a television producer/director.

Ferris was born in Eureka, California to parents Charles Edwin and Rose Marie (nea Ogden) Ferris. William was the second of four sons born to Charles and Rose Marie: Steven Charles (b. 1957), William, David Paul (b. 1966) and Michael Victor (1975 - 1976).

In 1973 at the age of 11, Ferris moved with his family to Santa Barbara, California. In 1974, they moved to Stevens Point, Wisconsin where they lived until 1977. During the summer of 1977, the Ferris family moved to Madison, Wisconsin. William attended James Madison Memorial High School, graduating with honors in 1980. He attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he earned a bachelor's degree in Radio/TV/Film and Philosophy in 1988.

During his last year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Ferris joined the student production crew at WHA-TV, Madison's public television station. In 1989, Ferris advanced to assistant producer/director with the Wisconsin Public Television (WPT) sports production unit. He helped produce televised coverage of UW football, ice hockey and basketball. Ferris advanced to the title of producer/director and, eventually, to senior producer of the sports unit. He left WPT in 1995.

Ferris worked as a freelance producer/director for one year before moving with his wife, Alice L. Ferris, to Flagstaff, Arizona in November 1996. William worked as a tour guide at Lowell Observatory from 1997 to 1998 before taking a position as an observer with the LONEOS project.

While with the LONEOS team, Ferris discovered or co-discovered five comets and was the first to observe a dozen near-Earth objects (see listing below). The asteroid 10937 Ferris was named in his honor by LONEOS principal investigator, Ted Bowell.

In June 2000, Ferris accepted a full-time position as a producer/director with Northern Arizona University (NAU). Later that year, just before the birth of his son Matthew, Ferris left Lowell Observatory.

William has had a lifelong interest in astronomy, and has been an active visual observer since 1993. Ferris is a deep-sky enthusiast, having observed and sketched the complete Messier Catalog of 110 star clusters, nebulae and galaxies, as well as the Herschel 400. His observations total more than 1,000 celestial objects. During the 2001 All-Arizona Messier Marathon, Ferris became the first person to observe all 100 Messier objects on consecutive nights.

Ferris presents his sketches and observation notes at his website: [http://www.cosmic-voyage.net Cosmic Voyage] .

{| align="left" style="border:1px solid #CCC; margin-left:15px;" cellpadding="5"
+ Near-Earth Objects First to Observe: 12
1998 WP7 || November 23, 1998 || Apollo
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1999 RQ28 || September 7, 1999 || Amor
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1999 RP36 || September 11, 1999 || Amor
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1999 VN6 || November 4, 1999 || Amor
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2000 GW127 || April 10, 2000 || Apollo
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2000 GG147 || April 10, 2000 || Amor
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2000 HO40 || April 25, 2000 || Aten
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2000 KA || May 22, 2000 || Apollo
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2000 KB || May 22, 2000 || Apollo
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2000 KC || May 24, 2000 || Amor
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2000 KN44 || May 30, 2000 || Amor
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2000 KX43 || May 29, 2000 || Apollo