As long as I can remember I have been fascinated with the night sky. The stars and planets elicited many hours of viewing and study, even as a very young boy. My first telescope was a Tasco 50mm spotting scope on a tabletop mount that I received around age 8. I soon learned that it was not easy to use the 50x of the scope while balancing on a TV tray! Even then many a night was filled with looking at the sky. In fact, since I was an asthmatic and was often sick, the 50mm was used many a night indoors looking out through the windows. Not a very good view but a view none the less!
In fact I really wanted to be an astronomer! Unfortunately, I was a full blown dyslexic and though my letters reversed in 2nd grade but my numbers did not, or at least they didn't until I was in my mid 40's! In fact I really enjoyed teaching a pre-algebra class in summer school one summer ( I was in my 40's) even though I never took even one college algebra class! Surprisingly enough, all of my students from that summer did quite well in regular High School Algebra the next year! Still I knew from a young age I was never going to be an astronomer with my math deficiencies. So a BA in history and a MA in Divinity were the eventual outcome of my education.
Eventually, aperture fever took hold and a campaign was begun to get my parents to buy me a larger scope. A 3" Newtonian was just the ticket. The Sears Catalog soon began to open to the telescope page all by itself since I spent so much time looking at the ads! The 3" arrived in my life on Christmas morning and soon the new size was paying dividends. The Andromeda galaxy, M42 the great nebula and all of the planets except Pluto were sought after and examined. (I looked for Pluto for many hours but a 3" Newt is just not enough scope to do the job from a back yard in Scottsdale, AZ!) Eventually I broke the mirror while cleaning it and another campaign for a telescope was begun.
This time I decided that I needed a Sears 90mm equatorial refractor! These telescopes were quite functional with good optics and OK mounts. They still demand a high price even on the used market. Unfortunately, my parents decided that I did not always treat my scopes well and that the investment needed for an 90mm was a bit too much. So the next Christmas I opened a long rectangular box to reveal a 60mm Alt/Az refractor with sun filter and finder, plus 3 eyepieces with a 2x barlow. This instrument led me from a celestial sightseer to a serious amateur scientist!
Mars was soon at opposition. wow, what a view! I could see Srytis Major and the polar caps. Once, I even believed that I saw Lowell's canals! I kept a very complete observing notebook like my hero Clyde Tombaugh. Once the notebook was sent to Lowell for their perusal just like Tombaugh did. Lowell's response was very cordial and the notebook was sent back but no job offers ensued! Variable stars promised to be a way into real science and I sent off for my first variable star charts from the American Association of Variable Star Observers. With eager anticipation I checked the mailbox every day waiting for the intro package. It finally came and I could not wait for night to come. After 2-3 hours I could not find a single variable. This experience was repeated over the next 2 weeks and I finally gave up! Since I was the only one that had an interest in variable stars much less a telescope (that I knew about) I was doomed to failure due to ignorance. It was not until many years later that I was to actually find and record a variable star.
College came along and much of my astronomy interests were put on hold. Not completely, however. Attending Northern Arizona University my freshman year I was able to attend observing sessions at Lowell Observatory and even convince the staff to stay a little longer and let me use the 24". The most memorable object was M 57. You could see a cheerio shaped ring with a little blue star in the middle. Amazing sight. I also got to use a 10" Newtonian for my beginning astronomy class. After the lab chores were done and my lab partners were off getting drunk at the local bar I would stay on the roof of the science building using a 10" to look at a variety of objects. We also had occasion to use the 24" reflector at the NAU observatory as well.
After college and it's 12 hours of astronomy courses there was little time for viewing. I still read astronomy books but seldom actually got to look through a scope. I attended Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary and lived on campus in Mill Valley, CA. The Seminary sat on a hill overlooking the bay and was one of the most magnificent sights I had ever seen! Unfortunately, it was terrible for astronomy. My interest did not wane however, since I would get to take trips to Yosemite National Park and be able to see the stars in a dark and pristine sky! It was so dark that it was often hard to pick out the constellations due to the overwhelming number of stars that could be seen. Most of my time was spent studying, working and eventually wooing my wife.
Marriage and then kids followed to the detriment of the pursuit of my astronomy passion. After working 50-60 hours a week, changing diapers and trying to stay sane, astronomy was only to be found in an occasional book checked out of the library. Each year I would say, "This is the year that I will buy a "big" telescope." But that year would pass, then another without the big scope.
Finally, we had to move in with my parents for awhile while between positions. I got out my old 60mm refractor and began to clean it. A small scope was better than no scope! After carefully taking out the lens elements and cleaning each one with distilled water and a drop of dishsoap I turned around to set a part on another counter and I heard one of my kids say, "Dad, what is this?" then I heard the sound of breaking glass! So much for the 60mm! It was not premeditated or malicious just curiosity! Still, now I had no telescope at all!
After much thought I called Coulter Optics, a small maker of Dobsonian telescopes and asked them if they had any mirror seconds. They did and it was only 25 dollars for an 8" mirror! so for the royal sum of 50 dollars I purchased the mirror and secondary to build an 8" Dobsonian telescope. With another 15-20 dollar investment in threaded rods and 2x2's along with my dad's ample scrap pile the telescope was built in an afternoon. It was ugly but functional. The focuser was off of the broken 60mm and the eyepieces were also from that scope. The mirror was not of the best quality but gave good views until you went over 150x. Now my appetite was whetted for some real science.
In Sky and Telescope appeared an ad asking for ground based observers to back stop an amateurs use of the Hubble Space Telescope. The project was to look for coma around several bright asteroids. This was something that I could do! The first observing week was clouded out. I decided to get serious about this project so I contacted Lowell Observatory and requested time on their 31" scope. It was granted and the excitement began to mount. Until they cancelled! The post-Doc who was supposed to assist me moved to another job! As a back up I contacted the Astronomical Society of Kansas City to see about using their 24" but it was broken. So after much calling and emailing, arrangements were made to use the observatory outside of Wichita, KS at Lake Afton. The day of observing dawned bright and clear. To pass the time I went to Hutchison, KS to the space museum. As I was headed back to Lake Afton a thin streak of cloud appeared on the western horizon. By the time night came it was pouring down rain! After 2 days in a motel I called it quits and left! It rained for a week straight! The next observing week was also rained out!
So much for doing science! However, this experience did rekindle my interest in variable stars. So while I was down with adult onset Whooping Cough a few months later, I sent a letter to Janet Mattai of the AAVSO indicating my interest in variable stars. Several months went by before I received a reply. Turns out I had forgotten to put a return address on the envelope or letter! Janet tracked me down through my membership in the Astronomical Society of Kansas City! While still coughing periodically, I went out to look for Z Ursa Majoris. My expectations were quite low after the experience as a youth. Within 20 minutes I had found the star and even recorded it's brightness! Success is sweet! When younger I had fallen victim to the same problem as Leslie Peltier in his book "Starlight Nights." My lack of experience caused me to underestimate the field of view of the eyepiece, thus making it difficult to pick out the variable from the back ground stars.
This really whetted my appetite to do science! My wife and I eventually moved to Deming, NM. Deming is a much better place to do astronomy than just about anywhere else we have lived. Soon after we moved there I noticed an ad in the Cloudy Nights forum for a 6' Celestron Refractor with a Skyview Pro mount for 350 dollars! I bought it and had my wife pick it up on a trip to Missouri to see her parents. It was to big to take on a plane so my sons in Oklahoma brought it out at Christmas! This was a serious sized instrument. It had issues like weight and Chromatic Abberation but it was still the best telescope I had ever owned at that point. Amazing views.
This new scope inspired me to want a CCD to do photography. Noticing that virtually every serious camera was way out of my price range I was a little discouraged. I called Gary Russell (Russel Optics) in Arizona, a friend that had attended one of my astronomy classes at Mohave Community College. He sells used equipment but did not have anything I could afford. He did suggest that I contact a friend of his that had a SAC-7b modified and cooled webcam that might be willing to sell. So a deal was concluded and I was the proud owner of a used SAC-7B camera! The purchase of this instrument led to doing photometry of a star in M 42 with the built in filters on the color chip. The findings were presented to the joint SAS/AAVSO meeting in Big Bear, CA in May of 2009. While at the meeting I purchased a Star Analyzer from Oliver Thizy who was giving a talk on spectroscopy. This began another area of science endeavor that actually is a lot of fun!
When I got back from this meeting we moved to another house and that is where the idea of the TRO came in. Instead of breaking down the scope every night and carrying it into the garage I built a wheeled platform that could be rolled out.This was the early beginnings of the TRO! Though the definition of Observatory is a place where you observe, my postings about the wheeled platform was kicked out of the Cloudy Nights Observatory Forum. I was told that it did not meet the criteria of an "observatory." Still it was my observatory so I was happy.
A few months before we moved, I had upgraded the mount to a Celestron AS-GT GOTO mount. It was supposed to be to light for a 6" refractor but the mount handled it quite well. Another change was the acquisition of an SBIG ST-7E ccd camera. Arne Henden of the AAVSO had suggested that I contact Tom Krajci in Cloudcroft, NM since he did serious science with AAVSONet telescopes. After emailing Tom several times he said "Hey I got this ST-7 that I am using as a doorstop and if you come up I'll give it o you." My wife and I headed up there to visit soon after. Sure enough, he was using the case with the camera in it as a doorstop! Tom and I have been good friends ever since. All the pieces were in place to begin to do some serious observing. Tom rebuilt my mount and serious plans were made.
After much experimentation and time, a working scope began to emerge. We had to move again so much of my observing plans were put on hold. This new location was 5 miles south of town and a much better site for astronomy. In a flash of brilliance I decided to leave the telescope and mount out side covered with a tarp. The tripod was tightly attached to a large trailer screw that was buried several feet into the ground. While on a trip to Phoenix our house had a 100+ mph wind that pulled up the screw and threw the scope against a fence. The AS-GT mount was broken into 2 pieces but everything else was OK! At this point I decided that I needed a new mount at the least or and a new mount and a new optical tube assembly (OTA) at the most. After much study I decided on a larger FOV and bought an Astronomy Technology 8" Newtonian Astrograph. To mount this scope I purchased a Sirius mount from a college student in Florida on Astromart. The mount did not come with a hand control but it did come with a EQMOD cable to hook it to a computer. Thus the basic setup of the TRO Deming was born.
In July 2011 I received a call out of the clear blue sky from a guy in our area. He mentioned that he had an 8" LX-200gps and wanted to know if I would be interested. I asked how much and he told me that he did not want any money for it but that I could just have it along with a Meade DSI Pro camera and lots of accessories. After I recovered from that part of our conversation he dropped another bombshell! If I was interested he also had an unassembled Skyshed Personal Observatory Dome (POD) that I could have as well! Needless to say I jumped on this once in a lifetime opportunity, borrowed a trailer and picked up the scope and dome. Over labor day 2011 a friend of mine and I assembled the POD and the TRO took it's present form!
Temple 20 (LX200 GPS) was refurbished by Tom Krajci near Cloudcroft, NM. Temple 20 is the 8" LX200 gps modified with metal gears and a cooled custom carbon fiber tube. The scope initially had a problem with slightly oval stars but it was not a big problem to start with but it kept getting worse. It turned out to be the cooling fan on the ST-402 CCD camera (camera was on loan from the AAVSO). It was running at a point that caused vibration in the scope. Tom added a couple of resistors to slow the fan motor down some and that solved the problem! When the 8" is next used it will be with my ST-7E CCD doing Spectroscopy and photometry.
In February I took a job teaching science at McCurdy High School in Espanola, NM. To facilitate the move I sold my Skyshed POD to a friend of mine and bought an 11" Celestron from Tom Krajci. It was a telescope that he had just about completed when he decided to quit astronomy for awhile. So he was willing to sell it to me! It is an 11" SC (Schmidt-Cassegrain) with a custom carbon fiber tube, enhanced cooling, automated focusing, medium format CCD camera and a full set of scientific filters.It was installed and tested in March and April 2014. I had a series of productive runs in May and June. However, I was offered the position of senior pastor at First Baptist Church Espanola, NM in June. We moved to the parsonage in July and TRO Espanola is currently not set up. The new version will feature a functional floor (not dirt or grass) and plywood sides. Our new location is only 2 blocks from the old location but has a much better view of the sky.
Overall I am getting to live out a life long dream! The images taken with the former 8" astrograph at TRO Deming rival the best taken with much larger telescope 30 years ago. What fun to be able to do this quality of work with a scope and mount that cost under 1000 dollars!
Not nearly as impressive as the 200" but not bad for an 8" wide field telescope taken from the Temple Research Observatory! We are truly living in the golden age of amateur astronomy!