Quick Facts
Biography
Robert D. Stephens (born 1955) is an American amateur astronomer and a prolific photometrist of minor planets at Santana Observatory (646), Rancho Cucamonga in California, United States.
Member of the American Astronomical Society and former president of the Riverside Astronomical Society, Robert Stephens became active in studying minor planets in 1999. Since then, he has obtained and published hundreds of rotational light-curves of asteroids from photometric observations taken at the Center for Solar System Studies (CS3–Trojan Station ; U81), Landers, in the Southern California desert, where he collaborates with astronomers Dan Coley (U80) and Brian D. Warner (U82).
Stephens was the winner of the 2009-Chambliss Amateur Achievement Award and the 2012-Clifford W. Holmes Award. In 2013, he was awarded a Shoemaker NEO Grant, together with astronomers Albino Carbognani, Robert Holmes, Gary Hug and Donald P. Pray.
The main-belt asteroid 39890 Bobstephens, discovered by Petr Pravec in 1998, was named in his honor.