From Hillbilly to Engineer to Astronomer

[dustymars]

I had an interest in astronomy as a kid from the 1940’s and sampled telescopic observing from time to time into the late 1960’s.  In 1973 we moved to Miami, Florida and then read about comet Kohoutek in a newspaper, so after expressing interest in seeing it my wife gave me a 60mm Tasco refractor for Christmas to observe the comet and that was enough to renew my interest in astronomy and telescopes. The news clip mentioned going to the Miami Transient Planetarium for information, so off we went and one thing led to another and I joined the Southern Cross Astronomical Society that started a new hobby for us.  Here is a long read about my amateur astronomy trek:   https://dustymars.neocities.org//IsoObservatory.pdf

During he 1970’s and most of the 1980’s I worked for Eastern Airlines, but that came to an end in early 1989, so my contacts with several professional astronomers led me to a new career as a professional astronomer:  https://dustymars.neocities.org//RADIO_DISH.pdf

Anyone else interested in astronomy?
 
 
 
 
 

[flaokie]

Anyone else interested in astronomy?

I was always interested in astronomy, but never enough to really get into it.
I came close more than a few time to buying a telescope.My interest these days is limited to the Stellarium program on my laptop, and the news articles on new discoveries.
I use the picture of Pluto as my desktop background.
Who would have ever thought we would ever see this object so close up and in such great detail?? Amazing stuff.

[dustymars]

One reason for joining an astronomy club is participating in observing and telescope making.  Buying telescopes is quite expensive; whereas making one is much cheaper.  Our group would drive around to various junk yards, especially near airports, looking for parts and materials for telescope making.   If you read my "observatory" article much of the stuff is explained.   My last I made was a 16" f/6.9 Newtonian that cost me less that $4,000.  A commercial one would be well over $100,000.

The problem now is age; I just got too old to limb the ladder