Junk Bond Observatory

Junk Bond Observatory operated in the Sonoran Desert near Sierra Vista, Arizona, from 1996 until its dismantling in 2021, becoming one of the most productive amateur-built asteroid-hunting stations in the United States.

About Junk Bond Observatory

The observatory was established by amateur astronomer David Healy in his backyard in 1996, using a Celestron 14 SCT and a 16-inch Meade LX200 telescope housed in a roll-off shelter. Its wry name nods to Healy's earlier career as an analyst at Drexel Burnham Lambert. The observatory carried the Minor Planet Center code 701.

History

A 20-inch Ritchey-Chretien telescope was installed in 2000, later replaced by a 32-inch Ritchey in 2004. Asteroid searches began in 1998, and the observatory's first discovery came in June 1999, an asteroid later named 38203 Sanner. By November 2016, a total of 272 numbered minor planets had been discovered at the site, 219 of them credited to David Healy and/or fellow astronomer Jeff Medkeff. Until his death in 2011, Healy also contributed follow-up observations for the Minor Planet Center's Near-Earth Object Confirmation Page and performed photometry of exoplanet transits and variable stars. The telescope was dismantled in August 2021, with its dome and equipment sold to a private buyer.

Location & getting there

The site sits in the Sonoran Desert near Sierra Vista, Arizona, at an elevation of about 1,349 metres, a setting long favoured by amateur and professional astronomers for its dark, dry skies.

See your named star from here

Junk Bond Observatory no longer operates, but the Arizona desert skies that made it such a productive discovery site are still there. If you've named a star with Star Register, look up its coordinates in our catalogue and try spotting it from a dark-sky site in the region.