If you’ve read my book, it probably won’t surprise you to learn that I have a lifelong love of astronomy. It started when I was 11 years old. My father took our family over to his boss’s house for dinner one night, and after dinner, our host asked if we would like to look at the Moon through his telescope.
He had a small 2” diameter telescope, not much larger than the one Galileo used 350 years earlier to look at Jupiter — and in so doing, proved that Copernicus was right, the Earth was not the center of the entire universe.
When it was my turn to look through the telescope at the Moon, I gasped in astonishment. I had no idea that the surface of the Moon looked so dramatic. There were mountains, and valleys, and craters large and small, and of course the lunar maria, or “seas,” spreading out across the surface. Even through that tiny telescope, it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen in my young life.
It was all I could talk about for days. Seeing my excitement, my mother got me some library books on the solar system. I read them all and asked for more; I was hooked.
Years later, when I went off to college at the University of Maryland, and I needed to take elective courses to fulfill requirements for my degree, I took two astronomy courses, which further stimulated my interest. I began subscribing to Astronomy magazine, and later Sky & Telescope.
In 1980, having moved away from the Washington, D.C. metro area to a small town with clear, dark skies, I bought my first telescope — it was literally an eye-opening experience for me. Whenever the weather was favorable, I tried to get out after nightfall and do some star-gazing. One of my favorite objects to look at on clear summer nights was the Andromeda galaxy, which is two million light-years away. Just thinking about what I was seeing, and how long ago the light had left Andromeda, gave me chills of excitement.
Once, I stayed up all night photographing a lunar eclipse by attaching my Nikon camera to my telescope. My photos weren’t as good as what you would see in a magazine, but it was a really fun thing to do, and I’m glad I did it. I was less glad the next day, though, because I had to go to work after having gotten no sleep at all the previous night. But it was worth it.
My most exciting moment as an amateur astronomer, however, was the night I observed the planet Uranus for the first time. Astronomy magazine had instructions for how and where to find it in the night sky, but it would only be at its highest point in the sky around 4:00 in the morning — again, on a work night. But I set up my equipment in my front yard and followed the directions in the magazine and to my delight and amazement, I found a small blue disk floating in the eyepiece of my telescope. I literally jumped up and down and shouted. Then I looked around to make sure I hadn’t wakened my neighbors. That was one of the most inspiring and unforgettable moments of my life.
