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Michael A. Stecker
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My original interest in astronomy was sparked by the father of my best pal at junior school. He paid 6 old pennies at a church charity sale for a tatty book of hand drawn traditional representations of the Constellations. It showed the Great Bear, Hercules, Hydra and the rest of the mythical depictions in the stars. My grandad gave me an old 1" lens folding brass navy telescope to help me look at a few things and I've wanted to see more ever since. I treasured that telescope for years to come and when my best pal's dad started to take us out on "midnight walks" to look at the stars that made it an even bigger thrill. After all I was only about 9 years old at the time. After trying to build my own telescope in my teens, I was frustrated that I couldn't afford to buy the parts but eventually cobbled together an 8.5" Newtonian reflector on an English Fork mounting by the time I was 16. Then serious school and graduation came along and I had to choose a subject to major in, leaving my interest in hold. I eventually graduated from Liverpool University with an honours degree in Physics in 1968. My local council, by sheer twist of fate, then offered to fund my further study in astronomy and I graduated from University College, London, with a degree in Astronomy in July 1970. These were among the best two years of my life - even though I didn't excell. I discovered very quickly that there was no money in astronomy at that time (in the UK). I then spent most the next 33 years raising a family, and earning a crust in sales, sales management and sales directorships in computer systems and then telecommunications infrastructure manufacturing companies. My first telescope purchase was a Celestron Ultima C11 and the first CCD camera was an SBIG ST-4 in 1991. This was enough to tell me that the mount and the CCD were not quite up to the task but things were moving fast. I took early retirement in December 2000 from Alcatel (UK) and then focussed on my two interests: renovating the house and getting serious about imaging. It was the right time to start imaging as everyone knows :- technology had moved quickly, prices were down to being affordable to the amateur and some excellent new companies were doing their best to bring quality equipment and software to the layman. What a great job they have done for us! I am now in my element. A wonderful partner, two beautiful daughters, two beautiful step-daughters and lots of technology. Retired, have a serious interest, affordable equipment and some great amateur "experts" to help me along. And.....long live Yahoo groups and may they exist forever in the vastness of the universe....
By the end of 2007 I expect to have an additional new telescope and CCD in a rented observatory somewhere high, somewhere further South and not in the UK to operate remotely from home.
By Dec 2007 :
AstroTech 16" RC, AO-L, Paramount robotic mount, ST-1000M CCD , FW8-L in
remote observatory
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