One of My First Loves - Astronomy

My 12.5 inch reflector at twilight in West Texas.

My love for astronomy began when I was a child and simply looked up at the night sky and stared in awe at all of the stars.  In suburban Illinois in the 1970s, there were plenty of stars to appreciate.  Now that I live near a big city, it much more challenging to find a clear dark sky.  For the best views I now travel to low population sites where there is little or nearly no light pollution.

As I grew a little older I began to dream of being able to see more clearly the sights the heavens held high above.  At the library I discovered Sky & Telescope magazine, where I poured over articles and photographs of magnificent astronomical objects.  My favorite middle school teacher, hinted to my father at Open House one night just how much I would love to have a telescope.  To my surprise that fall my parents gave me my first telescope - a 4 inch diameter reflector!

Now, twenty-six years later, I still have that telescope, along with several others.  My interest in telescopes and the night sky is very much alive and borders on obsession.  Soon (oh, give me about two or three weeks), I will have a special tab set up on this blog site entitled, "Astronomy."  After you take a look at the photos there, I'm sure that you'll fall in love with astronomy too.