Roy A. Tucker

Roy A. Tucker (born 1951, Jackson, Mississippi) [ [http://gpobs.home.mindspring.com/gpobs.htm gpobs.home.mindspring.com] ] is an American astronomer. He is a prolific discoverer of asteroids, identifying 215 and co-discovering one, between 1996 and 2006. [ [http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/MPDiscsAlpha.html Infos from cfa-www.harvard.edu website] ]

Tucker was raised in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1966, he became a member of Memphis Astronomical Society and received a Master's degree in Scientific Instrumentation from the University of California, Santa Barbara. [cite web |url=http://www.spaceguardindia.com/Team.html |title=The Team |accessdate=2007-09-23 |publisher=Spaceguard India] He works as a senior engineer in the Imaging Technology Laboratory of the University of Arizona.

Awards and discoveries

* 2002, one of five researchers awarded a "Gene Shoemaker Near Earth Object Grant", by the Planetary Society.
* One of the three co-discoverers of asteroid 99942 Apophis (formerly better known by its provisional designation 2004 MN₄) along with David J. Tholen and Fabrizio Bernardi of the University of Hawaii. This asteroid will closely approach the earth on 13 April 2029 and be as bright as a third magnitude star.

References

Further reading

* Aguirre, Edwin L. 1999. "Sentinel of the Sky - Armed with a Modest Telescope and CCD Camera, Tucson Amateur Roy A Tucker Joins the Ranks of Professional Astronomers Who Have Discovered Near-Earth Objects. Sky and Telescope". 97, no. 3: 76.
* CCD Precision Photometry Workshop, Eric R. Craine, Roy A. Tucker, Jeannette V. Barnes. "CCD Precision Photometry Workshop: Proceedings of a Meeting Held at San Diego, California, USA, 6-7, June 1998". Astronomical Society of the Pacific conference series, v. 189. San Francisco, Calif: Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 1999. ISBN 1583810153

External links

* [http://gpobs.home.mindspring.com/gpobs.htm Goodricke-Pigott Observatory]
* [http://www.geocities.com/moonyguy/2002NT.html Discovering My First Asteroid "Don't count your asteroids till they are numbered" - Roy A. Tucker] First person narrative.