My Life Long interest in Astronomy began in 1950, at the age of 10, when I discovered that my neighborhood library, , Hollywood Branch, in Portland, Oregon, carried S&T; however, I did not acquire my fist scope until I purchased a 10” Dob in 1997 or 1998 while living in Anchorage, AK. In 1999 I purchased my second scope, a Meade ETX 125.
In 2000 I built a roll-off roof Observatory, to house my next scope, a Meade 12” LX200, about 60 miles North of Anchorage (Beaver Lakes - See Northern Lights Link below photo).
In 2001 I also joined the AAVSO (American Association of Variable Star Observers) and started doing visual observations of Variable Stars. My first Visual Variable Star observation was of SS Cyg on 9/29/01.
In November 2002 we moved to our retirement home in Arch Cape, Oregon, where I built a ground deck with a Clear Sky’s Observatory Dome to house the transplanted 12” scope, which saw first light (again) in June 2003.
In the fall of 2003 I attended an “Imaging the Sky’s Conference” in Salem organized by Mel Bartels, Richard Berry, Jim Girard, David Haworth, Rick Kang and Nick Liepins, where Jim Jones, fellow RCA member (and now AAVSO member), helped to encourage me to purchase a CCD. In late January of 2004 I received a CCD (ST-9E) from the Santa Barbra Instrument Group and began using it for integrations of Variable Star Fields with my first CCD report occurring on February 8, 2004 (U Gem).
In March of 2005 I attended a High-Energy Astrophysics Workshop for Amateur Astronomers, sponsored in part by NASA, at the University of New Mexico, which included a workshop on Advanced CCD Photometry.
I have now made over 96,000 photometric observations from CCD images for the AAVSO (12/08/09). [Observer initials: CTX]
Tim "Hosting" A Table For The AAVSO at ALCON 2007
2005 - "Variable Star Observing," Oregon Star Party
2007 - "First Observed Outburst of DW Cnc," Paper, AAVSO Spring - Astronomy Roundup 2007
"Introduction to Visual & CCD Observing of Variable Stars," ALCON 2007
OMSI Astrometry & Photometry Workshop
"The Case For Science Observing"
"Organizations That Mentor Science Obserevers and-or Accept data From Amateurs"
"Choosing a Suitable Science CCD Camera"
2008 - "Visual Variable Star Observing," Rose City Astronomers Science SIG
"Detection of the First Observed Outburst of DW Cancri," JAAVSO Volume 36 , #1, 2008
2004
“A New Cataclysmic Variable in Hercules,” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, December, 2004.
2005
“Multicolor Observations” of ASAS 002511+1217.2, Information Bulletin on Variable Stars, 5611.1, March, 2005
2006
"The Recently-Discovered Dwarf Nova System ASAS J002511+1217.2: A New WZ Sagittae Star, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, February, 2006;"
"TheDetection of the WZ Sge-type Nature of the Dwarf Novae ASAS 023322-1047.0 and ASAS 1052522-1542.4," by the Center for Backyard Astrophysics and Submitted to the SAS Conference, May, 2006.
2007
"SDSS J1021.46.44+234926.3: New WZ SGE-Type Dwarf Nova," Information Bulletiin on Variable Stars, 5763, April, 2007.
"A Search for SS Cyg Outburst Predictors." Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, December 2007
2009
"Periodicities in the high-mass X-ray binary system RX J0146.9+6121/LS I+61 235." Monthly Notices of the Roayl Astronomical Society, 392, 1242-1552 (2009)
http://arxiv.org/abs/0810.4577
"VSX J074727.6+065050: A New WZ Sagittae Star In Canis Minor"; Accepted BAA Journal
http://arxiv.org/abs/0905.0061
"Survey of Period Variations of Superhumps In SU UMa-Type Dwarf Novae"; Accepted PASJ
http://arxiv.org/abs/0905.1757
2003
“Star Dust Chair Review”
Rod Mollise's SkyWatch, September-October, 2003
The Rosette Gazette (Rose City Astronomers) Novermer 2003
2004
“A Field Review of Celestron’s 9.25 Advanced GT Telescope”
Rod Mollise’s Skywatch, Winter, 2004
The Rosette Gazette (Rose City Astronomers) January, 2004
“Clear Skys Dome Review”
Rod Mollise’s Skywatch, Spring, 2004
“Sight Savers Review”
The Rosette Gazette (Rose City Astronomers) June, 2004
2005
“3rd High-Enery Astrophysics Workshop for Amateur Astronomers ”
The Rosette Gazette (Rose City Astronomers) May, 2005
"Variable Star Observing"
The Rosette Gazette (Rose City Astronomers) July, 2005
2006
"Contribute to Science by Observing Variable Stars"
Amateur Astronomy # 49, Spring 2006
"Ensemble Photometry Options - For AAVSO Amateur Observers Using AIP4WIN and Other Software,"
Book Review "The Immortal Fire Within - Life and Work of Edward Emerson Barnard"
The Rosette Gazette (Rose City Astronomers) June, 2006
"My First Variable-Star Observation - A Series of Misadventures"
The Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (JRASC) June, 2006
2007
"Sideral Time Is Our Friend"
The Rosette Gazette (Rose City Astronomers) March, 2007
2008
"Playing" With A 1.82 Meter Scope Doing Spectroscopy"
The Rosette Gazette (Rose City Astronomers) January, 2008
"The Rool-Off Roof Design vs Dome Style Observatories"
AAVSO Newsletter, Issue No. 38, October 2008
2009
Amateur Astronomy # 62, Summer 2009
"Contributing To Science With Your CCD Equipment"
Published Photo of Comet Ikeya-Zang & M31, 4/4/2002
Tim R Crawford, Sr.
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