Junk Bond Observatory

Junk Bond Observatory was a private observatory in Sierra Vista, Arizona, founded by David Healy in 1996 and known to the Minor Planet Center as code 701. Starting in an amateur astronomer’s backyard with modest equipment, it expanded into a productive site for asteroid searches and follow-up observations. Its first discovery came in June 1999, and by November 2016 it had discovered 272 numbered minor planets, most credited to Healy, Jeff Medkeff, or the observatory itself. It also conducted photometry of extrasolar planet transits, cataclysmic variable stars, and active galactic nuclei before being dismantled in 2021.

Sierra Vista Southeast, Arizona · United States