Father and Son Astronomers

August 27, 2001 - Often when we think of stargazers, we think of some lone person sitting on a hill out in the country looking through a telescope toward the heavens. Or we think of the astronomer sitting alone in those giant domed observatories looking at the skies, charting the path of the latest asteroid discovery, or calculating the size and distance in light-years of the black hole they’ve been staring at for days. Very seldom do we think of stargazing as a group hobby, or a bonding experience. In fact, it is becoming more popular for friends and families to join together with a common interest in the skies.

Mark and his son Steven are avid stargazers. Mark has been studying the night skies since he was a child, and now that he has a son of his own, he’s found great pleasure in sharing his passion for the night sky with his twelve year old. And Steven has really taken to it as well. "Steven just soaks it all in," Mark says. "He knows so much about the sky now that he couldn’t even enjoy any of the asteroid movies that came out a couple of years ago."

Mark read our article on Tomm Aldridge, the amateur astronomer who hooked up his NightWatch black and white camera to his Celestron 8" SCT, and then used the Video Sender and Receiver to transmit raw data back to his VCR. This sounded like a great project for Mark and Steven. "We’re always looking for new ways to add to our system," Mark said.

He and Steven purchased the equipment, and then sat down together and went through the How2 where Tomm explained how he set up the equipment. Steven would read the directions, and the two of them would work the setup. "It was great father and son time," Mark said.

Once they had the system up and running they began to study the moon together, taking pictures and capturing video. From there, they could study, as Tomm did, the 93 km diameter crater Copernicus, Tycho and Clavius as well as many other of the moon’s craters.

They’ve also started experimenting with other night objects to see how far they can see. "We’re learning our limits and boundaries, and we’re doing some exploring of our own," Mark says.

Now Mark no longer has to try and help his son Steven find his way while he’s trying to point out his favorite spot in the sky. He can run it up on the VCR, and Steven can look at it that way. Then, once Steven has had a look, he can look for it in his telescope. And, Steven can capture images that he’s curious about, and ask his dad. If they don’t recognize what they’re looking at, they can hold the picture there until they’re able to identify it.

X10 is reaching for the stars and working "To boldly go where no one has gone before."

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