Hello! I am Renerpho, or Daniel Bamberger in real life.
While this Wikipedia account was created in 2015, and I have occasionally edited on the German Wikipedia since 2012, I only really began to consider myself a "Wikipedian" in 2018. I never really bothered to create a user page, but the tower of user boxes below characterizes me well enough.
I have conflicts of interest about a few topics on which I have worked more or less regularly. I believe that transparency about this is vital for the integrity of Wikipedia. Here I try to explain some of the potential problems, and what I may or may not be doing. If you still see an issue with an edit I made, let me know.
I have researched, and published a book about, Edward Thonen. I am also the main author of his Wikipedia article both on the English and German Wikipedia, and have successfully nominated it for Did you know? on both projects. I declared my conflict of interest from the beginning, including in the DYK nomination.[a] I took care to ensure the article complies with neutrality and notability guidelines to the best of my abilities. Here I relied on the help and feedback of others, since nobody is able to objectively assess their own biases.
Related to this, I have a potential conflict of interest about George Dreyfus, and I avoid editing his article.[b]
The following minor planet names were suggested by me. I have edited some of the associated articles. Most of these asteroids were discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS),[c] but I am NOT a member of the CSS staff, nor am I associated with them in any official capacity.[d]
I do have a conflict of interest about Loren C. Ball, who is a friend of mine and the discoverer of 128345 Danielbamberger, which he named after me. I have made a few edits to his article over the years.[e] In the case of Matt Parker and Pi Day,[f] I did not declare that conflict of interest initially, because my involvement had not been revealed at that time. (I had asked to stay anonymous.)
I made one edit to Brady Haran, which is unrelated to the asteroid.[g] I've made a few edits to Dianna Cowern before the idea to name an asteroid after her came up, and have made minor edits to that article from time to time.[h] I may continue to do so. Apart from that, I hereby recuse from editing any of these or the other articles in the table below in the future.[i]August von Klipstein [de] is a distant cousin of me, and I own some old documents and memorabilia related to his family.[j] The family connection definitely played a role in my decision to suggest the asteroid name. As of April 2025, he does not have an article on the English Wikipedia, and I won't create one.
List of asteroid names I proposed (that were accepted)
American amateur astronomer Loren C. Ball (b. 1948) is a prolific discoverer of minor planets. Between 2000 and 2004 he discovered more than 100 asteroids from his Emerald Lane Observatory in Decatur, Alabama. Ball currently promotes asteroid education in schools and on social media.
Francis Williams (c.1690-c.1770) was a Jamaican astronomer, poet, and polymath. He was one of the most notable free black people in Jamaica. He independently recognized the return of Halley's Comet in 1759.
Dianna Leilani Cowern (b. 1989) is an American science communicator. On her YouTube channel Physics Girl, she often collaborates with other educational YouTubers. The channel has over 400 million views and more than 3 million subscribers.
Toby Hendy (b. 1995) is a New Zealand science communicator. Better known by her nickname Tibees, her eponymous YouTube channel has gained more than one million subscribers. She publishes videos about mathematics, physics and astronomy.
Timothy Justin Dodd (b. 1985) is an American science communicator, photographer, and musician. His YouTube channel Everyday Astronaut, where he makes videos about spaceflight, has gained more than one million subscribers.
Brady John Haran (b. 1976) is an Australian-British video journalist and filmmaker. On his YouTube channels, which include Periodic Videos and Numberphile, he frequently collaborates with academics and other educational YouTubers.
William Gerard Noel (1965-2024) was a British-American medieval manuscript expert, who served as Associate University Librarian for Special Collections at Princeton University. He led the Archimedes Palimpsest Project, which revealed a lost codex of Archimedes.
Johann Jakob Kaup (1803-1873) was a German paleontologist and zoologist. In 1829, he developed a theory of evolution similar to Darwin's later theory of natural selection. The same year, he discovered the Deinotherium, an extinct genus of elephant-like animals. Kaup first described and named numerous taxa of living and extinct species.
August Wilhelm von Klipstein (1801-1894) was a German geologist and paleontologist. In 1835, he and his friend Johann Jakob Kaup discovered the first skull of a Deinotherium.
Matthew Thomas Parker (b. 1980) is an Australian recreational mathematician, author, and science communicator based in the United Kingdom. His Stand-up Maths YouTube channel has gained more than one million subscribers. Parker's Pi Day (March 14) challenges, where he calculates (by hand) π with the help of volunteers, have popularized mathematics.
Gilbert Baker (1951-2017) was an American artist, civil rights advocate, and flag designer. In 1978, he created the rainbow flag, which became an internationally-recognized symbol of sexual diversity.
Steve Mould (b. 1978) is a British educational YouTuber and science presenter with over 3 million subscribers. As part of Festival of the Spoken Nerd, he brings science to live audiences in entertaining ways. His video on self-siphoning beads led to the phenomenon being dubbed the Mould effect.
I am maintaining a list of asteroids discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey that are eligible for naming,[k] which may be used by some of the survey staff themselves.
I have also helped with the naming of certain asteroids. Some of these are listed below.
Guy Wells is a friend, and a colleague of mine at Northolt Branch Observatories.[l] I have no particular connection to the name Taowu, but may edit that article occasionally out of a general interest (rather than a personal one) in the object itself.
Guy Wells (b. 1976) is a British-Grenadian amateur astronomer and a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. He has created Northolt Branch Astro, a group of amateur astronomers who seek to increase public interest in astronomy. He provides follow-up observations of Near Earth asteroids to the Minor Planet Center.
One of the Four Perils of Chinese mythology, Taowu is a ferocious and stubborn beast said to lurk within the western regions of China. It is depicted as having a human head, tiger legs, boar tusks, and a long tail.
If you want to suggest a name for an asteroid, I am not the right person to contact. Generally, your best bet is to try and contact the discoverer directly. Please make sure first that you understand the rules and guidelines, and are familiar with the general process. Please do not ask them to name an asteroid after yourself.
My impact risk corridor map for the (now ruled out) impact on 22 December 2032
2024 YR4 is an article that I have some interest in, and I have edited that article often.[13] Many of the references that mention me do so because of the impact risk corridor map that I created and uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, and which is used in the Wikipedia article.
As of March 2025, I am mentioned in one section of the article, and I'm not touching that paragraph.[14] Apart from that, I prefer to discuss sources that I am named in on the article talk page before working with them, and to limit the edits I make to the article to uncontroversial facts (or correcting factual errors) where possible. That said, I made some claims that are cited (the impact "could be brighter than the full moon" making it clearly visible to the naked eye) which I no longer agree with personally. This would be true if the object was at the upper end of the size range that was possible at the time, and if all energy from the impact were converted into visible light (which it won't).[m]
I really hope we get to see it hit the Moon, no matter how bright.
^The exceptions are 72834 Guywells, which was discovered by Loren C. Ball; and 628318 Stevemould, which was discovered by Spacewatch.
^For an explanation of what I've got to do with them, best watch David Rankin's interview in Brady Haran's asteroid playlist (time stamp: 7m41s).
^My edits to Loren C. Ball: [2] Some of these, like this one about the naming of 62701 Davidrankin, were not without personal connection (David is a friend of mine who now works at CSS). I recused from making edits directly linked to my person, like this one by a different user about the asteroid that Loren had named after myself.
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