Astronomical Profile

Hello! And welcome to my web pages. My name is Gary Poyner,and I am an Amateur Astronomer from Birmingham, England. I have been interested in Astronomy for over 40 years, and have been an active observer for most of that time.

My first observations were made with a small 60mm OG bought for me for my 7th birthday in 1965, along with a copy of Nortons Star Atlas. I quickly upgraded to a superb 6" (15cm) f8 Charles Frank reflector, which introduced me to the wonders of Planetary observing - and in particular Jupiter. Many of my later Planetary observations would be been made with a 20cm f10 Newtonian reflector, the best telescope I have ever owned for this type of work. In 1970 I joined the Birmingham Astronomical Society as a 12 year old junior member. I only remained for one year, but learned a lot in that time. It was to be another 8 years before I joined another group - The Chelmsley AS (now the Heart of England AS), and I am still a member.

I continued to make serious observations of Jupiter with the 6 inch Franks telescope until the late Summer of 1975, when an event occurred in the constellation of Cygnus which was to change my astronomical life forever. Yes you guessed it - Nova Cyg 1975 (V1500 Cyg). From that moment on I was hooked on these strange new stars which can appear without warning. Following this it was a natural progression to move into the study of Variable Stars. I upgraded to a 10 inch f6 telescope in 1977, which served me well for 10 years. By this time 95% of my observing time was spent on Variable Stars. In 1987 I upgraded again, this time to a 16 inch f5 reflector. Made by Dark Star Telescopes, and using a David Hinds Mirror, I made in excess of 100,000 Variable Star observations with this superb telescope until it it was sadly damaged in a fire in December 2000. It was replaced with a far from perfect 18 inch f4.5 reflector in March 2001. A Meade 14 GPS has now replaced the 18 inch. In addition to this I also own an 8.75" reflector which is portable, allowing me to move the telescope around the garden to observe VS fields not visible with the main instrument.

On April 17.913 UT 2007, I made my 200,000th visual variable star estimate (DW Cnc at 15.1mv). For this achievement I was presented with the 'Charles Buttetrworth' award at the 2008 joint BAAVSS/AAVSO meeting in Cambridge. This consists of a 25cm wide thick slate, with my own light curve of DY Per showing on the face. Charles Butterworth was an early 20th century English amateur astronomer, and the first observer to makeone hundred thousand visual Variable Star observations.

My great passion is looking through the eyepiece of a telescope. To me visual observing is 'real' Astronomy, and my opinions on this will never change. However since 2006 I have been making photometric measures of Variables from images obtained with the Bradford Robotic Telescope. You will find some of these images in the light curves section. These observations 'supplement' my visual ones, and in no way does this mean I am 'going over to the other side'!

In 1978 I joined the British Astronomical Association and 'The Astronomer' (TA) organisation. In 1989, Guy Hurst invited me to become assistant co-ordinator for the UK Nova/Supernova search programme, a position I filled until I was invited to become Director of The BAA Variable Star Section in February 1995. I handed over the Directorship to Roger Pickard five years later. Since 2000 I have been editing the monthly Variable Star pages in 'The Astronomer' magazine, (after contributing to these pages for over 25 years, it's a great thrill and honour to find myself editing them!) and I'm now back as assistant co-ordinator of the UK Nova Patrol, checking visually any alerts of suspected Novae reported to TAHQ, as well as being a member of the 'The Astronomer' editorial board. On the local society side of things, I'm ex-Chairman of the Heart of England Astronomical Society & past President of Wolverhampton AS.

In June of 2000, the British Astronomical Association awarded me the 'Steavenson Award' for "Outstanding contribution to Observational Astronomy". This was undoubtably the highlight of my astronomical life. The award - consisting of a certificate (below) and a book prize was presented at the annual BAA exhibition meeting in June of 2000. Oh, by the way the book I chose was "Astronomy in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland" by Clive Ruggles.

In 1993 I joined the AAVSO, the worlds largest and most active Variable Star organisation. Since then I have reported over 100,000 observations to their database,and taken part in several pro-am projects with regard to special observing runs with satellites and ground based professional telescopes. In Spring of 2003, I was fortunate to be awarded the AAVSO 'Director's Award, presented at the Spring meeting in Tuscon Arizona (my fear of flying prevented me from attending), This consisted of a written citation and a rather nice 'star' shaped timepiece, mounted on a marble base. Looking at the names of past recipients, this was indeed a great honour. In 2005 I was invited to speak to the 94th AAVSO fall meeting. As I don't fly, I was asked to do it via web-cam from my study at home. This was a first for both the AAVSO & me! With great assistance from Aaron Price at AAVSO HQ, the presentation went according to plan - including a Q&A session at the end. Who needs to fly!

My main interest in Variable Stars are Cataclysmic Variables (CV's), especially Dwarf Novae (DNe). I have around 400 variables on my observing programme, of which some 90% are CV's. In particular I try to monitor as many of the eclipsing DNe as possible. Follow the 'Light Curves' link below to view a selection of light curves for some of my favourite stars, which are updated at the end of each month.

Since 1990 I have been co-ordinating a special programme for the BAAVSS & TA dedicated to poorly studied CV's, which command interest from professional astronomers. This is called the Recurrent Objects Programme. For more information on this, click here. I n 2007 I set up a new observing programme within the BAA Variable Star Section dedicated to the monitoring of neglected Magnetic Variables called the Long Term Polar Monitoring Programme. More info. here. In addition to this, since 2005 I have been co-ordinating the BAAVSS international OJ287 observing campaign. This project is designed to observe the two predicted outbursts of this Blazar, in order to confirm the binary black hole nature of this extraordinary object. The campaign web page can be seen here. The project was a success, with papers published in Astronomy & Astrophysics and Nature.

Working with Professional Astronomers is one of the most rewarding aspects of specialising in CV research. Having collaborated with many over the years, I can honestly say that all I have come into contact with have been supportive of the amateur cause. In May 2007 Dr. Boris Gaensicke & I appeared on BBC News and an ICast film (shot in my study and observatory) made for Warwick University concerning the suspected enigmatic UGWZ star HS2331+3905, which had never been seen to outburst. Little did we know that just a few short months after the films were made, HS2331 would shine bright enough to be seen in small binoculars - and the same time that Boris had time allocated at the William Herschel Telescope. An amazing coincidence! The picture on the right shows Boris posing with the Meade 14 during the BBC News and Warwick ICast shoot.

In 1990, the University of Birmingham granted me an Honorary Fellowship, bestowing on me the title 'Honorary Research Associate' at the School of Physics and Astronomy. The University have supported me a great deal over the years, in particular providing me with a remote Starlink access since the early 90's.