Steve Siedentop

I’m originally from North Carolina and my father was a Marine, so we lived near a military base on the coast.  At the age of 13, we moved to Indiana and that’s what set me on my path to amateur astronomy.  We moved from a large, diverse community to a small town of about 300 people.  I can remember going outside at night for the first time in Indiana and looking up, wondering what all the clouds were.  I didn’t know it at the time, but I was looking at the Milky Way.  At some point, I decided to get out a telescope that I had received with a subscription to Ranger Rick magazine.  It was quite pitiful compared to what I use today, but it was mine and it was spectacular to me!  I looked at Saturn and Jupiter, but I think what really hooked me was the Moon.  I would go on to use that telescope to see Haley’s Comet.

Eventually, cars, girls, and all of the distractions that pulled a teen-age boy in different directions would pull me away from that telescope and life went on.  After college, the Army, more college, marriage, and children, I began wondering about telescopes again and was amazed at what was out there.  About 15 years ago, my wife gave me a telescope for my birthday, and it rekindled my interest.  I spent a good bit of time languishing with it on my own and finally decided to see if there were any astronomy clubs around.  I found Charlie Elliott Astronomy and spent a night on Jon Wood Astronomy with some very kind and welcoming people, learning more in one night than I had in a year on my own scouring the internet.

Dennis Ruzeski

"Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries."  We need your bio, Dennis! 😄

Greg Gaugler

"Alright, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us? "  We need your bio, Greg!  😄