Meet the Team


From left to right: Carol Neese, Gilbert Esquerdo, David Levy, Carolyn Shoemaker, Wendee Wallach-Levy; in front of Obadiah, the JCS 0.3-m f/2.2 Schmidt camera.

The Jarnac Comet Survey is made up of individuals who bring a diverse set of expertise to the project. The team members are:

Dr. David Levy
Discoverer of 21 comets, eight visually, David is well known as both a popularizer of astronomy as well as an experienced observer. David is co-Director of the Jarnac Observatory.

Ms. Wendee Wallach-Levy
Educator and co-director of the Jarnac Observatory, Wendee provides valuable organization to the observing programs which have involved the use of up to five telescopes simulataneously.

Dr. Carolyn Shoemaker
Undeniably the greatest comet discoverer of our time, Carolyn's 35 comet discoveries, as well as dozens of Near Earth Asteroids makes her the team's expert in detecting and identifying comets in deep images of the sky.

Dr. Carol Neese
A Research Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Carol leads the scientific analysis of data acquired during the course of the survey.

Mr. Gilbert Esquerdo
Observer and resident CCD guru, Gil has been responsible for incorporating digital imaging and automation technology into the survey.

All team members contribute to the observing load of the survey program. While the intent is to automate as much of the operations as possible, many of the instruments still require some degree of human intervention during these formative stages. Two of the instruments are wide angle Schmidt cameras which can take images with many times more area than the CCD based systems, but are limited in how faint thay can image. As these Schmidt cameras are film based systems, the operating load is greater. David and Wendee are the primary Schmidt observers while Gil is the primary "observer" for the automated systems.

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