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My History in Astronomy

I have been interested in astronomy for about as long as I can remember. I was always a "science geek" and particularly liked chemistry (mainly making stuff that explodes!) when I was at school, but that gradually changed to astronomy. I joined the astronomical society before leaving school, and got more involved when I went to university.

While at university I joined the astronomical society's committee and became the "education director". That is the person who takes groups through the observatory and shows them the sky. At the time the observatory had a quite nice 30cm (12 inch) Cassegrain/Newtonian reflector on a fork mount in a small done, as well as various other portable telescopes up to 36 cm in size.

The observatory also did some research, which I participated in, collaborating with the university. We had a photoelectric photometer which we used to measure the magnitude of flare stars. This was before modern CCD cameras were readily available!

After graduating I returned to my home town and re-joined the society there, and a few years later moved back to Dunedin, where I live now. I did more teaching then, for the society and for an adult learning organisation, but soon real life intervened, and I got married, worked longer hours, had a couple of kids, and my dedication to astronomy has never been the same.

I still do a bit of observing occasionally, and I have a Celestron C8 on a computer guided mount, which I don't use often enough, considering how much it cost! But I still consider myself an amateur astronomer, although not a serious one any more.