Backyard astronomer helps confirm 100 exoplanets

Astronomers find planets by watching a star dim for a few hours, like a moth crossing a porch light, and an Australian backyard observer has now helped confirm 100 of them. (abc.net.au) Chris Stockdale works from a backyard observatory in Churchill, in Victoria’s Gippsland region, where he uses a 320-millimetre telescope on a precision tracking mount to stare at one patch of sky for hours. He looks for a drop in brightness of about 0.5 per cent to 1 per cent when a planet passes in front of its star. (abc.net.au) That pass is called a transit, and the dip it leaves in the data is called a light curve. NASA’s Exoplanet Watch says those dips let astronomers measure a planet’s size and help plan later studies of its atmosphere and orbit. (science.nasa.gov) Stockdale’s measurements feed into larger follow-up networks built around the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, which NASA launched in 2018 to scan bright nearby stars across the sky. The TESS Follow-up Observing Program uses ground-based observations to confirm planets, refine their sizes and measure their masses. (heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov) That is where backyard telescopes matter: space telescopes can flag a candidate, but astronomers on the ground have to check whether the dip came from the right star and whether it repeats on schedule. Stockdale told ABC News that sorting out “which star caused the actual dip” is the core of the job. (abc.net.au) The Astronomical Society of Australia has now awarded Stockdale the 2026 Berenice and Arthur Page Medal, which recognizes scientific contributions by amateur astronomers in Australia and its territories. ABC News reported the award on April 13, 2026, as Stockdale reached the 100-exoplanet mark. (abc.net.au) Stockdale’s interest in astronomy goes back to the Apollo era in the 1960s, when moon landings and bright comets first pulled him outside before dawn. He told ABC News he has kept that interest ever since, and now runs a fully automated telescope system from his backyard dome. (abc.net.au) NASA’s citizen-science model is built for that kind of work: Exoplanet Watch says beginners can contribute with their own telescope or by analyzing shared data, and participants upload results to the American Association of Variable Star Observers database for research use. Stockdale’s 100-planet milestone shows how that pipeline can run from a suburban backyard to international planet-hunting teams. (science.nasa.gov)