Farm Cove Observatory facts for kids

Farm Cove Observatory (FCO) is a special place in Pakuranga, Auckland, New Zealand. It's an observatory where people who love astronomy study the stars. A famous discovery happened here! In September 2009, a scientist named Jennie McCormick found a new asteroid called 386622 New Zealand.

What is Farm Cove Observatory?

The observatory was built in the year 2000. It has a powerful telescope called a Meade LX200R 14" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. This telescope was borrowed from Ohio State University.

To take pictures of space, the observatory uses a special camera. It's called an SBIG ST8XME CCD camera. This camera helps gather important information about stars and planets. Farm Cove Observatory is used only for scientific research about space.

Studying Variable Stars

Farm Cove Observatory helps with research on cataclysmic variable stars (CVs). These are stars that suddenly become much brighter. This research is part of a group called the Center for Backyard Astrophysics (CBA). The observatory is also known as CBA Pakuranga.

By January 2006, Farm Cove Observatory had spent over 1400 hours collecting data for the CBA. The information they collected has been used in many scientific papers.

Hunting for New Planets

In April 2004, Farm Cove Observatory joined a project called MicroFUN. This project is led by Professor Andrew Gould at Ohio State University. The goal of MicroFUN is to watch for special events in space. They look for something called gravitational microlensing.

Gravitational microlensing happens when a star's gravity bends the light from another star behind it. This can make the background star appear brighter. Scientists watch these events closely. They hope to find planets orbiting the star that is bending the light. Most of these events happen in the crowded center of our Milky Way galaxy.

Discovering an Exoplanet

Farm Cove Observatory had a big success in April 2005. They helped find an exoplanet! An exoplanet is a planet that orbits a star outside our solar system. This discovery was part of an event called OGLE-2005-BLG-071.

Many professional astronomers worked on this discovery. Two amateur astronomers also helped, including those at Farm Cove Observatory. FCO observed this event for 12 hours. The new planet is about three times bigger than Jupiter. It is about 15,000 light-years away, towards the center of our galaxy.

This was only the second exoplanet found using the microlensing method. It was also the first time amateur astronomers helped discover an exoplanet!

Observing Blazars

Recently, Farm Cove Observatory has been helping with another project. They are measuring the brightness of a Blazar called OJ+287. A blazar is a very bright and active galaxy. This work is part of a campaign by the British Astronomical Association.

Images for kids

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  Farm Cove Observatory 2020

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  Farm Cove Observatory and 6" Brewster Angle Solar telescope