Dennis Conti

Dennis Conti earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from Purdue University. After retiring from a career in telecommunications with Hughes Network Systems, Dennis became an avid deep sky and planetary imager. He then moved on to detecting exoplanets and is the founder and currently Chair of AAVSO’s Exoplanet Section. Dennis is also heading up a collaboration of amateur astronomers around the globe who are providing ground-based observations in support of a Hubble science team’s study of some 15 exoplanets. In addition, Dennis is a member of the KELT exoplanet follow-up team, is author of “A Practical Guide to Exoplanet Observing”, has spoken at various amateur astronomy clubs and conferences on the subject, and has helped educational institutions start an exoplanet observing program at their own observatories.  Dennis lives in Annapolis, MD and from his permanent, peer-mounted telescope he is able to conduct exoplanet observations even in moderately light-polluted skies.