About Me & Contact

I am originally from Middlesbrough in Northern England, born in 1978 and have been an active amateur astronomer since a very early age.

In 1996 I discovered a new white spot (ammonia storm outbreak) on Saturn and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society for this and for overall contributions to amateur astronomy.

In 2001 I moved to Australia to study for a PhD in Astrophysics at the Australian National University. After graduating in 2005 I moved to Germany for 3 years to work as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, and then for a year at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Boston.

My main area of research was in the detection and study of planets orbiting other stars (extrasolar planets), with my PhD being on the search for 'transiting' planets in the Globular Clusters 47 Tucanae and Omega Centauri.

In 2007 I discovered the planet Lupus-TR-3b, which is around the size of the planet Saturn, orbiting a K-type star every 4 days, 9000 light years away. It is the first (and currently only) 'transiting' extrasolar planet to be discovered from Australia.

In 2009 I returned to Australia from overseas permanently and I now work as an Assistant Director at the Commonwealth Environmental Water Office.

I spend my spare time on Mount Stromlo Observatory, taking high resolution imagery of the Solar System as well as assisting with Observatory Outreach. I also serve on the committee of the Canberra Astronomical Society and arrange guest speakers for the Society.

I hope you enjoy the site.

David T F Weldrake

dtfweldrake@hotmail.com