Jennie McCormick

The primary scientific objective of this group is to observe high magnification microlensing events that give the best potential for detecting extra-solar planets.

[7] As part of a 2005 collaborative MicroFUN project McCormick, along with another New Zealand astronomer, Grant Christie, was credited with assisting in getting confirmation of a planet around 15,000 light years away from Earth, thought to be one of the "most distant ever discovered.

McCormick is usually referred to as an amateur astronomer, a term which Caren Cooper, in her book Citizen Science: How ordinary people are changing the face of discover, noted was a "longstanding, nonderogatory phrase in astronomy...[which requires a person]...to have enormous skill, dedication and expertise.

While McCormick initially said she wasn't "sensitive about words", in an interview with Cooper, she did pose questions related to the difference between a professional and an amateur in the field.

It was noted that McCormick needed her own telescope and computer literacy and concluded that she contributed to making discoveries not only on her own, but also through networks with professionals and other amateurs.

McCormick said amateurs produced high quality data more regularly because of good access to their own equipment which allowed the flexibility to negotiate the "whim of the weather...[and manage]...the nonstationary and variable characteristics of the stars...[to make]...contributions that fall through the cracks of the professional approaches to astonomy.