Congratulations to Dave Birmingham and Harvard MPC H53 !!

[drclay]

ASO's major contributor and moderator DAVE BIRMINGHAM has achieved a milestone today and I hope that all of the AO family will send him "Congratulations" for receiving his Harvard Minor Planet Center (MPC) Observatory Code (OBScode) today.  The achievement is awarded and affixed only for those observatories permanently mounted who have demonstrated precise skills in locating and measuring asteroids and particularlyl Near Earth Objects (NEO's).

Dave's observatory, The Birmingham Astronomical Observatory (BAO) has recently been moved and completed in Thompsonville, Illinois and is now officially recognized as MPC H53.

He uses a 0.31m SCT at f/3 Meade with an SBIG ST402 ME Class I CCD camera.

Following is the annoucement sent to Dave today from Harvard MPC:

--------------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------------
Subject: Observatory code
From:    "gwilliams@cfa.harvard.edu" <gwilliams@cfa.harvard.edu>
Date:    Tue, October 30, 2007 4:32 pm
To:      DAVE@arksky.org
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Your site is now code H53.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Gareth V. Williams, MS 18, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
Associate Director, Minor Planet Center             gwilliams@cfa.harvard.edu
                  http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/mpc.html
         OpenVMS and RISC OS: Refined Choices in Operating Systems

Congrats to BAO and to its director, Dave Birmingham!!

Dr. Clay and the rest of ASO!!

[divenuts]

Way to go Dave!
Your work has always been admired by me and many others in the astro community. I glad to see your precision and hard work pay off with this prestigious recognition.
Congratulations,
Chuck/divenuts

[rkbrook]

Kudos, Dave. It must be immensely gratifying to have your efforts so recognized. I will look forward to your further contributions. I was able to find 17P/Holmes last night here in New Jersey. I was very impressed even with my little 4" reflector. It is a most unusual object that I'm sure will draw you eye. Thank you for your contributions.

[pilleway]

Dave, I join my self to rest of the team, my best regards for the milestone achieved.

Hat off for the recognition and effort!

A recognition from Mexico. FELICIDADES!
Miguel.

[Rockhound]

GET SOME, DAVE, GET SOME!!
Non Verbis Sed Re

[Ron]

CONGRATULATIONS MPC H53
Dave Birmiingham

Another great milestone in your Astronomy career.

Congratulations on your hard work, your great support of ASO, and being a loyal an faithful contributor.

Ron

[lindendave]

Thank you everyone!

Without making this sound like the Oscar's or the Emmy Awards there are a few people in the background who helped make this possible. The major person who contributed a great deal is my best friend and mentor, Doc Clay, and I would not have been able to do this this without his input and help! Of course my other half was very supportive and understanding when I would spend the major portion of an evening in my observatory. I was also supported by a good number of family and friends even though they would sometimes look at me in puzzlement when I would go on and on about chasing rocks in outerspace!  I also would like to acknowledge the support of my on line friends here at ASO. A great deal of your contributions here were instrumental in fueling my desire and interest in this undertaking far more than you will ever know!

THANKS to ALL of you!

[ricksastro]

Dave,

Warmest congratulations!   What a great accomplishment and testament to your astronomy expertise!

Rick

[lindendave]

Now coming from such a great astrophotographer that is a compliment! 

Come on down to southern Illinois the skies are dark and the cows don't really bother you!

Thanks Rick!

[Jean-Yves]

Great achievement Dave, well done!

Cheers

Jean-Yves