Astro Gurus

He has been a professor of physics astronomy at several colleges and universities. He is the president of Methodist College in Peoria, Illinois. He has played a key role in several observatory projects including the Powell Observatory in Louisburg, KS, which houses a 30-inch (0.75-m) Newtonian; the Naval Academy observatory with an 8-inch (0.20-m) Alvin Clark refractor; and he built the Coast Guard Academy Astronomical Observatory in Stonington, CT, which houses a 20-inch (0.51-m) Ritchey Chrétien Cassegrain.

When Mike was 14 Paul got him a subscription to Sky & Telescope which continues uninterrupted through today. He has a B.S. in Astrophysics from Indiana University and following college, he entered into the US Air Force, where he served as a fighter pilot, instructor, and a manager in the Air Force's Space Shuttle Program Office. He hosts the website "Cassiopeia Observatory" where you can see reports of his sessions in his observatory, his astrophotography, and product reviews.

He implemented signal processing algorithms as custom integrated circuits for medical applications and digital speech at Stanford and Texas Instruments and later built computer aided design and knowledge management systems for MCC and Schlumberger. He now applies what he’s learned in computation, electronics, and imaging as an astrophotographer. He also enjoys urban sidewalk astronomy and traveling with his wife for dark sky adventures.

Wayne is also a member of the popular, Grammy nominated 80’s rock band Glass Tiger and often still tours with them. His love of astronomy led to the creation of SkyShed Observatories, a South-Western Ontario observatory company that designs and builds telescope observatories for astronomers. Since launching the company in 2003, Wayne’s SkyShed designs have become popular all over the world, and featured in international astronomy magazines and on TV. As well as with organizations like NASA, many schools, and astronomy clubs. His SkyShed POD is indisputably the most popular observatory ever commercially made available.

He is a retired Department of the Navy and Federal Aviation Administration Radar and Surveillance Systems Engineer and has served as a part-time technical and sales consultant for two Washington DC-area telescope stores for over 30 years.

After his astronomy and engineering career ended in the early 90’s Norm relocated to Hong Kong, learned some Chinese mandarin and spent the last 16 years teaching and lecturing at the university and graduate level in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China before retiring.

Then he discovered video astronomy, learned how to do it remotely and soon began publishing books on the subject as well as hosting the Remote Video Astronomy website to pass on what he has learned

He is the inventor of the Wilcox Rings, a novel solution to rotate the tube assembly for equatorial-mounted Newtonian’s. When he’s not viewing from his dark backyard skies, he spends time hiking, kayaking, snorkeling and playing music.

He is a strong supporter of star parties and has attended the TSP for a number of years. Something about escaping the dreadful wet and cloudy English weather! More about Keith can be found at his website

John is co-founder and Chief Cat-Herder of the Iowa County Astronomers in Dodgeville, Wisconsin and can be found imaging in his backyard observatory on most clear nights. In his “spare time,” John moonlights as a member of the Beloit-Janesville Symphony horn section.

He has published the books Astro-Tests and Astro-Guide and when he is not using astronomy equipment, you can find him biking all around the green corners of Brussels, Belgium.

Don currently observes the sky with a 4-inch apo refractor and a 12.5-inch Dobsonian, mostly from a high-altitude site a hundred miles away from Los Angeles.

He has a small but well equipped machine shop at home where he can machine and test project prototypes.

He lectures on topics of astronomy and space science at local libraries and state parks and coordinates with Syracuse’s Museum of Science and Technology on solar observing sessions and NASA-related events.

These include Nebulosity, a cross-platform application for DSO image capture and processing used by amateur astronomers across the globe. As if that’s not enough he has created several astronomy related projects such as the Lazy Laser Collimator, the LYBAR observing chair, and the Sphere-O-Scope.

His other hobbies include the design, building and flying of experimental aircraft and radio control aircraft - his main pride and Joy is a kit built Fokker Dr-1 Triplane and has a Piper Cub (3/4 Scale that he is designing and building). His Private Pilots Certificate has been active since 1987 and photography and astrophotography are a few other passions.

Greg eventually ended up working for NASA on the Mars Observer project. He was responsible for developing the image processing software used to view and analyze the images sent back by the Mars Orbiter Camera. Mars Observer failed just as it reached the Red Planet, but his work lived on in its replacement, Mars Global Surveyor. Greg and his family live in the mountains of Cloudcroft, New Mexico.

His observatory, TRO, features 2 robotic telescopes, an 11” Celestron and an 8” Meade LX200. In recognition of his efforts to promote astronomy, Asteroid 50687 “Paultemple’ was named after Paul on January 2010.

John has owned numerous scopes over the last 17 years from Meade to TEC to Vixen to Takahashi to the new AT RC's. He began astro imaging using film, then upgraded to CCD cameras with color filters.

A frequent contributor to Astronomy Technology Today, Sky & Telescope and astrophotography webinars, Richard also authors a monthly Sky & Telescope Blog “Imaging Foundations” and has written a book, “The Evening Show, Revealing the Universe Though Astrophotography”. Richard’s image gallery is at his website. Richard was diagnosed with an incurable case of the imaging virus nearly two decades ago. Ongoing treatment takes place primarily in Central Florida or at his dark sky site in South Florida.

His book “Making Beautiful Deep-Sky Images: Astrophotography with Affordable Equipment and Software” one of the Patrick Moore “Practical Astronomy” series was published by Springer. His New Forest Observatory host the unique mini-WASP deep-sky parallel imaging array.

Rod is a contributing editor at Sky and Telescope magazine where his work appears regularly. He is also an editor of the acclaimed Journal of Double Star Observations. Rod is no stranger to internet astronomy, either, and contributes to many online astronomy forums and publishes an article each Sunday at his personal website Uncle Rod's Astro Blog. He lives and observes under reasonably dark suburban skies near Mobile, Alabama.

After the completion of that project, Joe became a full-time independent optical-systems design consultant working for a variety of companies. In his spare time, he conducted a survey of known refracting telescope designs. From that research, Joe invented the Melior Apochromat and patented the design.

After a forty-year career writing books about business, world cultures, art, and fashion designers, he discovered there’s a left side to the brain, and he’s been writing about astronomy ever since. He is the editor in chief of Nightfall, an astronomy journal published by the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa.

He got involved in video astronomy in part to share his passion for astronomy with his son and family. Here he documents his thought process on the how to getting started in astro video and the benefits of this emerging technology.

Ramsden transports his solar astronomy gear to over 80 school locations yearly to use our wonderful hobby as an introduction to high tech science and to encourage students to pursue careers in space exploration and research. CBSAP has donated high-end Coronado equipment in over 25 countries around the world creating affiliates on 5 continents from North Africa and Australia to Canada and Europe. Their global reach exceeds to 200,000+ students annually exposed to direct solar astronomy education at over 300 free events.

He holds a Ph.D. in Literature from the Johns Hopkins University and currently teaches writing and humanities at Endicott College in Beverly MA. More than anything else he enjoys being out under the stars with friends, hunting down objects that are just barely there.

e’s appeared in a number of astronomical publications such as Sky & Telescope Magazine, Astronomy Magazine and Astronomy Technology Today magazine. Daniel is a technology representative at Woodland Hills Telescopes and the host of the weekly Radio WHCT Podcast with musings and interviews with astronomy professionals and enthusiasts celebrating the joy of astronomy. He also co-founded the Oak Canyon Astronomy Group which currently hosts star parties that take place each month of the year.

His images are processed with PixInsight and have been published in print and online.. In addition to his Astrdoc.com website, He shares his work at star parties and club events in Canada and the U.S., speaking on topics related to backyard astronomy and astrophotography. He’s had several articles published in magazines like Sky & Telescope and Astronomy Technology Today He got involved in astronomy in 1998 when he thought he had ordered a toy scope for his 3-year old son using Visa points. What arrived was a 4.5 inch reflector providing breathtaking views of Saturn, Jupiter and the Moon. He then bought a Celestron Ultima 2000 and the views blew him away - he was hooked. He started imaging in 2006 and ever since has been seeking deep sky treasures with camera and telescope.

He is retired from the TELUS Spark science centre in Calgary where he spent 30 years producing planetarium shows with his programs playing across Canada and in theatres in the U.S. He has served as an associate editor of SkyNews magazine and also as a contributing editor to Sky and Telescope magazine. He has co-authored several best selling print guidebooks for amateur astronomers, including, with Terence Dickinson, The Backyard Astronomer’s Guide, reprinted and revised in 2010. He is also the author of several children’s books on space, notably Insiders: Space and Mission to the Moon, both for Simon and Schuster.

He is also director of the Astro-Imaging SIG of Rose City Astronomers in Portland, Oregon and will be a speaker at the Oregon Star Party in August, 2014. The actual observatory houses an AP Mach1 mount, QSI583wsg camera, and several scopes, including a 25 year old 5.6-inch AP triplet refractor.