I started amateur astrophotography as a young student back in 1970 when the possibilities of a digital camera could not even imagined: true science fiction. My amateur career in asteroid observation started in 1972 at Benzenberg Observatory in Düsseldorf-Benrath, Germany with (4) Vesta. Inspired by high school teacher Dr. Wilhelm Alt who introduced the >> 24 Düsseldorfer Kleinplaneten << discovered by astronomer Robert Luther.

In 1984 my first CCD camera was a StarlightXpress, followed in 1989 by a SBIG ST-8. This was also the start of astrometry and photometry of minor planets, my favourite subject in astronomy to present day!

In 1989 I submitted my first asteroid observations to the Minor Planet Center in Harvard/USA, IAU station code 592 Solingen.

In 1997 I discovered three main belt minor planets in Solingen/Germany, now numbered and dedicated to my friends: (85511) Celnik, (15924) Axelmartin, (29483) Boeker. And finally main belt asteroid (191494) Berndkoch was named after me. Since 2000 I submit observations with my IAU station code B72 to the MPC.

In 2021, I started an observing program to track near-Earth asteroids. The focus is on the newly discovered objects, the so-called NEOCP objects (Near-Earth Object Confirmation Page).

List of observed NEOCP objects: https://neocp.jostjahn.de/station-B72.html