I discovered the universe when I was in 6th grade. It was on Palomar Mountain after a day trip to the Hale 200 inch telescope and a school camping trip. Up on the mountain on one very cold, moonless winter night, the stars were more brilliant than I could imagine. A camp counselor offered me a small 40 power Baush and Lomb spotting scope mounted atop a spindly camera tripod. Not really knowing what to look at, I pointed the little scope to one of the two brightest stars high in the western sky. The star turned out to be the planet Jupiter in all its glory with each of its four brightest moons easily visible and lined up in perfect order on one side of the huge planet. After a while I shifted the scope over to the second brightest star. I'll never forget my first glimpse of that wonderful miracle Saturn. I stood mesmerized looking back and forth at the two giants planets of our solar system until the counselors made us all go to bed.

From that night on, for the next 50 years, I never miss a chance to look skyward and take in the vista of beautiful stars and planets, always dreaming and always wanting to go out there.

I'm a retired Army pilot and do astronomy and astrophotography when I can. I'm currently the President of the Rappahannock Astronomy Club of Fredericksburg, VA. I use Takahashi, Losmandy, Televue and SBIG products and I love this hobby.