About me

Research Interest and Bio



Hello and thank you for visiting my observatory web site. Hopefully you will find pictures and links of interest.

My name is Fred Calvert and I live in Cold Spring Kentucky which is located just south of Cincinnati, Ohio with my wife Ann and puppy Abby.

My interest in astronomy dates back to when I was 9 years old, but not until the last 25 years - have I had the ability to afford having a real observatory, or a wife that would try to understand me spending the amount that a car would cost to look for ET, as she tells me I'm doing. Cold Spring Observatory is a 20 plus year project.

My other personal interests are flying (pilot, aircraft mechanic, aviation safety director & safety investigator). Aviation safety program management and aviation safety investigation is my real day job. Boating, building computers, doing fun astronomy science, photography (my first 18 year career), flight simulation and, of course my wife Ann and puppy Abby.

As a pilot, aviation safety investigator and computer builder (been building my own computers since the 1980s) have started building my own flight simulators as a new hobby to have fun with.

My first 18 year career was professional photography, mainly wedding and school events. One day I said to myself this has been fun but time for change. So back to college I went and earned a AS degree in Aviation Maintenance and one year Certificate in Employer Labor Relations from Cincinnati State & Technical College and obtained my aircraft mechanic's (A&P) certification and two years later my FAA Inspection Authorization.

After getting my mechanics certificate, I went to work as a contract aircraft mechanic for GE Corporate Air Transport and worked for a great guy named John Willman. After GE closed their flight department in Cincinnati John, and shortly after I, went to work for Executive Jet Management located at Cincinnati's Lunken Field where I worked for the last 28 years.

Over the last 20 years I completed training as an aviation safety and accident investigator at the NTSB Training Center in McLean, Virginia, The University of Southern California in Los Angles and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach and Prescott and, Ethics Compliance and Safety Ethics at Bentley University in Boston and UC Berkley, California.



I have graduated from the University of Southern California Aviation Safety and Security program and, the Aviation Safety Program Management and Aircraft Accident Investigation Management Programs at Embry-Riddle.



In January of 2021 I returned to collage at Northern Kentucky University to complete a BA in Integrated Studied with a concentration in Astronomy, Human Services and Adiction, Human Resource Administration and Organizational Leadership graduating in December of this year



In Novermber of this year I plan on retiring from EJM to persue my third college degree in theater at Northren Kentucky University starting in Jan 2027 and spend more time conducting deep-space research and imaging.



Research

My main research interests are the formation of Planetary Nebulas that takes place after the death of a star that is about the size of our sun, give or take a few solar diameters.

Secondary projects are searching for Supernovae in NGC 6946 and NGC 2403. Both of these galaxies are very active in star formation and death, and conduct period verification of selected eclipsing binary and variable stars and, imaging of gravitational lensing, gravitational visually enlarges galaxies.

Past research includes involvement with the Advanced Research Group at the Cincinnati Observatory Center, which was also the first Professional Observatory in the United States dedicated by John Quincy Adams in 1843.



Our main efforts was providing some of the initial targeting data for the NASA Kepler Space Telescope.