New Zealand Astronomers

John Drummond

Born 1961. Amateur astronomer who became obsessed with astronomy when his mother pointed the "Pot" in Orion out to him when he was 10. Major astronomical interests include comet and meteor observing as well as astrophotography. John has served on the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand council for a couple of terms and been the president of his local Gisborne Astronomical Society a number of times. He is currently the director of the RASNZ Astrophotography Section and the RASNZ Comet and Meteor Section. He has confirmed three comet discoveries - C/1995 Q1 (Bradfield), C/2007 E2 (Lovejoy) and C/2007 K5 (Lovejoy). John is a contributing photographer for the Australian Sky and Telescope magazine and has had photos published in numerous books and magazines around the world.

John maintains two observatories in Gisborne, New Zealand:
Possum Observatory (IAU Code: E94), position E 177° 53´, S 38° 38´
Possum Observatory is a 4.3 x 4.1m rotating observatory, which uses a pea combine harvester ring as it´s base. It houses a 41cm (16") f4.5 Meade Starfinder Newtonian.
Cockroach Observatory
Cockroach Observatory is a 4.5 x 3m roll-off roof observatory and houses a 41cm (16") f4.5 Meade Starfinder Dobsonian and a heated Lazy-boy chair! It was "officially" opened the day Comet McNaught was seen in the day sky with the naked eye - January 14, 2007.

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Facilitated by RASNZ The Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand (RASNZ)

Supported by RSNZ The Royal Society of New Zealand



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