Journey through time and space
Credit to my parents for buying me a small telescope in third grade. I remember the first time I found the Dumbbell Nebula in it and I was hooked.
In college, I worked as an astronomer for the Space Astronomy Laboratory at UW-Madison. The project I worked on is called The Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimetric Experiment (WUPPE) using the one-meter telescope at Pine Bluff Observatory.
This project was designed to study the composition of dust clouds around and between stars. The target list was comprised of known star types that eject a lot of molecular dust, like luminous red variables and Wolf-Rayet stars.
http://www.sal.wisc.edu/PBO/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Bluff_Observatory
The highlight for me was in 1995 when my team launched the same instrument called a spectropolarimeter aboard Space Shuttle Endeavor. The shuttle data focused on ~1200A to about 3500A (UV light does not penetrate earth's atmosphere), which I combined with my visible and infrared observations up to ~9000A giving us polarimetric data across the entire uv, visible and ir spectra.
My Pubs:
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1994AAS...185.2115J/abstract
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1995AAS...187.7914J/abstract
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1995AAS...18710604B/abstract
After graduating, I saved up the money to purchase my first imaging telescope, the popular LX200 EMC 10". At first, I tried to work with traditional photo film -- even went so far as to set up a dark room. I quickly discovered the drawbacks of using chemical films.
Fast forward to today, I am lucky enough to live on a dark street near lake Michigan. It is in a Bortle 5 zone, but if I image out over the lake, the sky has good contrast. I have a dark sky spot within a short drive, but I will admit that I don't use it often enough. . I enjoy photographing at longer focal lengths even though it puts more strain on guiding. I love imaging galaxies in a relatively small field of view.
I continue to look for ways to improve optics, guiding, processing, gear and everything else that goes into this addictive hobby.
If you are interested in reaching out to me, I can be reached at astrodad at gmx dot com
By chance, I happen to find this article last night in the UW publication, On Wisconsin. Apparently, the version of my instrument used on the shuttle is going on display at the Smithsonian Institute. I'm looking forward to my next trip to the Air and Space Museum!
