John Broughton

For other people named John Broughton, see John Broughton (disambiguation).

Minor planets discovered: 1180 [1]
see § List of discovered minor planets
Broughton portrait painted in 1983

John Broughton (born 1952)[2] is an Australian amateur astronomer and artist. He is among the most prolific discoverers of minor planets worldwide, credited by the Minor Planet Center with more than a thousand discoveries made between 1997 and 2008.[1] His observations are done at Reedy Creek Observatory (428), in Queensland, Australia.

In 2002, Broughton was one of five astronomers to be awarded a "Gene Shoemaker NEO Grant" by the Planetary Society to support his work on near-Earth asteroids.[2] The money enabled the purchase of a CCD camera for use initially on a 10" SCT and later on a 20" f/2.7 automated telescope he designed and constructed, with first light occurring 10 April 2004.

Asteroid 24105 Broughton was named in his honour in 2005,[2] and he later won an Australian national award – the 2008 Page Medal.[3]

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference MPC-Discoverers was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference springer-Broughton was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Page-Medal was invoked but never defined (see the help page).