Sciences

Amateur Astronomy

Probably even before the Science Club, Lupin and Cosmos, but surely amplified by those influences, I’ve had a fascination with the immensity of Space, the impossibility of fitting the vastness of phenomena into our brains, and so I became more and more interested in Astronomical exploration. That led me to tinker with telescopes since I was a teenager, and although I am still very much learning my way around the night sky, with the blessing of growing across the two hemispheres I continue to enjoy the simple wonders up there.

Over the years I’ve done a bit of (totally) amateur astrophotography, both old school (film, 35mm camera, manual exposure, etc.) and digital, using either tripod-mounted binoculars or refracting telescopes. I’ve also loved staying late into the night in both warm and cold seasons, to enjoy the show afforded by meteor showers, and also occasionally doing some counting (and hunting). And there’s always just good-old plain looking at the night sky with the naked eye (and a few charts maybe), and letting it all in; whether it’s an interesting cluster during a rare clear suburban night, a once in a lifetime conjunction, the old full moon, or just to keep up with Orion, space is out there for us to wonder every single night we are around. A kind of “Imagination Astronomy”, as Richard Bray described it (Sky & Telescope 2000, Vol. 100, Number 3).

Besides joining The Planetary Society, and attending the local Astronomy Club and SpaceUp meetings, I continue to evolve my favorite areas to learn more about, such as Planetary exploration, Astrobiology, Near-Earth Objects and Exoplanets. Also, Space Sciences was a potential target for graduate studies, but so far it’s a path that remains elusive and only in the realm of an exploratory hobby.