Basically
I have been interested in the night sky for as long as I can remember.
When I was very young I remember being in my grandparents front yard
with my father and grandfather as they stood looking into the night sky.
Now mind you I was 2 years and 8 months old. I am talking about
December of 1957. Before you knew it, my mother, grandmother, aunt and a
few neighbors were all standing around doing the same thing, staring
into the vast blackness of cold winter night sky. When all of a sudden
my father said, "there it is". Everyone starting pointing upward as my
father was holding me at the time, as he too was pointing in the
direction that he wanted me to look. I remember him asking if I could
see the star that was moving, (what ever a star was). I do remember
seeing something of a point of light moving, being as there was
absolutely nothing else in motion. They watched it for several minutes
as it disappeared off to the east. I really didn't know what all the
commotion was all about, a 2 year old does not have much of an attention
span. However I do remember that it was very cold out and wanted to go
back inside and be warm again. What everyone was looking at was the
first satellite ever lunched into space, it was Sputnik 1. Even at the
time it did not mean anything to me until years later I learned that
Sputnik 1 was the first satellite ever lunched into space. Then much to
my surprise I learned that it had only spent about three months in orbit
before it burnt up upon reentry. It was only about the size of a
basketball, but could plainly be seen.
Years later laying on my
back looking into the night sky with my fathers binoculars taking in
everything I could possibly see. Stars seemed to be pretty cool until I
seen something else up there that was moving and I knew it was not a
star nor an airplane. I had just viewed my first satellite that I had
found on my own. After that, weather permitting, it had become a nightly
show for me. I had become so transfixed with looking into the night sky
that my eye sockets hurt from laying there resting the weight of those
10 x 50's on my face trying to hold them as still as possible. I wanted
to see everything I could and not miss a thing. My father then had
decided to purchase a telescope mainly for his own use, but you know how
that turned out. I remember that scope very well. As a matter of fact, I
have that vary scope to this day. It was a Tasco refractor. It has a
60mm diameter with a 700mm focal length. To a young boy this scope
seemed so big and long as it was perched on top of the tripod. Needless
to say as time went on and looking into every Sky & Telescope
magazine I could possible find or lay my hands on, I started to see and
read about telescopes that were a lot bigger in apeture. One afternoon
on my way home from high school (Macomber), myself and a few friends
were waiting for the bus downtown on Huron St. in front of Kramers smoke
shop. In Kramers, they had a very nice selection of books. Sports,
hunting, outdoor magazine, then what catches my eye, but that months
issue of Sky & Telescope. Right beside that was another magazine
called "Astronomy". I fell deeper in love with the hobby and would
rather read those than any old book at school.
It was not too very long
after that when I decided to purchase my first Schmidt Cassegrain scope.
It was a tabletop model and only 4" in diameter. I named it Phobos,
after the moon around Mars. Small moon, small scope. After that I would,
and still do name my scopes after moons of our solar system. I started
Sunset Observatory in 1984. I knew that at the time and only a 4" scope
things most definitely had to change. As time went on, I was now working
in the United Building Trades as a Sheet Metal Worker. I seen my first
large apeture Schmidt Cassegrain telescope at a local camera shop in
1989. It seemed like a monster. It was an 8" Meade on a forked arm
German equatorial mount. Had to have one. I placed an order with City
Camera in Dearborn michigan for a scope. But what I had ordered was an
even bigger 2120 LX 6- 10". Being as I was young and not a lot of money,
I had to finance this loan, so a fitting name was going to be IO, (moon
of Jupiter), hence I owed. And the love and purchases continue to this
day.
I had pretty much every
monthly issue of Sky & Telescope to date until, that horrible night
in 1994 when I had a garage fire. Not only did I loose every one of
those issues to the fire, I also lost my 10" Schmidt Cassegrain ( IO),
along with my very first table top Schmidt Cassegrain ( Phobos). I was
totally heartbroken. Thank God for replacement cost coverage on my
homeowners insurance.
