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, 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 have been sending 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).