How I became an Amateur Astronomer
March 2006 :
Well, Let Me See—
I guess it all started when I was 8 or 9 years old. Once again, November arrived and, at this time, the frostfish also arrived on the sandy shores of upper Narragansett Bay. These are Whiting, normally about 12” long; they chase shiners along the beaches and are very tasty! One needed a pair of boots, a sharp spear and a light of some sort. On a clear, calm and cool night we were usually successful.
Now, shoreline fish after dark also meant a sky full of stars! I, with my Dad, plied the still waters in the early evenings but, the sky above beckoned. In the mid 1940’s we were under wartime blackout conditions and it was truly dark!
I never asked my Dad how he came to know the sky and, much later, I realized his knowledge was sketchy at best but, for then, he was my mentor. He knew Cygnus, Ursa Major and Orion. I was amazed at the ease of how to find the North Star.
I remember at one of my Cub Scout outings I was the only one who could find night time North! I know I missed a lot of fish because I spent a lot of time looking up!
At 9 years old I received my own boots-Size 9-My feet swam in them and, sometimes literally, as often the fish were out too deep and I flooded over the top.
The next summer, I attended a camp in N.H. and, for the first time, looked through a telescope at the Moon. I’ve never forgotten that experience and, often hope that the youngsters we entertain at our observing sessions might also be moved to an interest in the heavens.
In the years to follow, at camp in N.H. and Scout Camp, I won several Astronomy prizes and my Astronomy Merit Badge. But, as often happens, the pre teen and high school years showed me other things that occupied my attention. Oh, there were those times when a glance upwards still showed that which I had always seen before, still there. There was a partial solar eclipse in the late 1940’s and Dad helped me make a pinhole box-not impressed!
High school and college flew by and I found my self aboard a Navy ship heading for Florida. There was a bright and large comet in the sky that I couldn’t get enough of.(Mar. ’56). With the very dark ocean sky, the comet and stars together was a wonderful sight.
After several more years-marriage, children and other priorities, I slowly got back to looking up more often and needed to get reacquainted since my children were now entering scouts and we always did ‘sky stuff’ at our overnights.
I found a totally clapped out 4” reflector in a junk pile, fixed it up, somehow got it collimated and was off and running. When I saw the Orion Nebula for the first time I was completely hooked.
In the 1960’s, my Dad was taking courses at Brown with Dr. Smiley and he started getting Sky and Tel. Which I poured over immediately and grabbed the sky chart to work with. That took some getting used to as there was a huge difference in scale from chart to sky!
After many frustrating months in my yard dodging trees and a huge lacking in my expertise, I joined Skyscrapers in 1987 or’88,—And as is often stated, That’s a whole ‘nuther’ story!
