The Long and Winding Road

Driving to the observatory through the Michigan countryside gives me plenty
of time to reflect on the long and winding road that has brought me to this
point in my life.

Leaving my urban neighborhood of closely packed homes, I pause at the main
road and gaze west into the sunset. I remember the kid who raced home to get
to dinner on time, after spending hours in the library reading every
astronomy book and periodical I could lay my hands on. I usually read the
magazines from cover to cover first, because we weren't allowed to take them
home. Then I'd hop on my bicycle with another Patrick Moore book in my bag
and race to make it home before the streetlights came on.

It was instilled in me early on that to take notes and record everything I
saw carefully and accurately was the only way to be a good observer. Those
magical popular astronomy books by Moore and James Muirden were probably the
biggest influence in my life as an amateur astronomer.

A couple years ago I discovered my notebooks from this time while rummaging
through boxes I had in storage. I was surprised at how faithfully I had
recorded sunspots, lunar craters and the positions of the Galilean
satellites from night to night with my 70mm refractor.

I head east for a mile or so and come to the road that leads north towards
the countryside. The sharp left turn I make here is analogous to the sharp
left turn I took in life entering college.

After spending my high school years focused on mathematics, physics and
music I came to a crossroad in life. Weeks before leaving home to study
electrical engineering at Michigan Tech, I decided to turn down financial
assistance and a relatively certain future to study music at another
university.

I was already playing in a band professionally, and my decision was no doubt
influenced by the fact that young girls found musicians much more exciting
than engineers. Playing saxophone and keyboards in nightclubs until the wee
hours of the morning five nights a week left little time for astronomy. My
"observing" was soon limited to pointing out constellations and planets to
girls I was trying to impress. I spent the next twenty years playing jazz,
rock and roll, blues and country music and thought little about my
astronomical interests.

I follow this road north out of the city for quite a while until I come to a
small town typical of the villages in this part of the country. At the north
end of town I make another left turn and head west through farm fields.
Similarly, life took another turn in the late 80's for me.

Through an unexpected chain of events I found myself turning my passion for
gardening into a profession. Eventually, I retired from the music business
and started my own landscape design/build firm. I now had the time and money
to purchase a "big" telescope and pursue my long dormant interests in
astronomy.

I wasted no time reviving my hibernating enthusiasm for astronomy, and
observing variable stars. I joined the AAVSO, and my local astronomical
society and soon after, started a variable star sub-group. The sub-group
eventually evolved into an independent group of observers we call Sirius
Astronomy. We have our own website and an observing site with three domed
observatories and a collection of telescopes. We don't bother with meetings
very often. The main focus of the group is observing astronomical objects,
rather than talking about them.

Another quick turn to the north, past an apple orchard, and I find myself
under dark enough sky to see evening's first bright stars through the
windows of my car. I'm getting closer to my destination.

The single most important factor in my rapid development as a variable star
observer has been the Internet. I was fortunate to be mentored through email
by two of the world's leading observers, Gary Poyner and Gene Hanson. They
graciously shared the wealth of their experience and knowledge and saved me
countless hours, learning things the hard way.

Our informative, lively, and quite often, humorous discussions led to the
creation of an informal email discussion group that includes many of the
world's leading visual observers of cataclysmic variables. I have friends
all over the planet now who share similar interests. Many of them I have
never met face to face. It was a great thrill for me to finally meet Hazel
McGee and Rod Stubbings in Hawaii after having known them through email
only.

One of the main topics of discussion has always been the inadequate or
non-existent charts for many of the CVs we were observing. This eventually
led to my other astronomical passion, the creation of accurate sequences and
charts for variables.

I turn left onto the road that is the last leg of my dark sky journey. There
is an old schoolhouse at the corner that has been converted into a home.
Decades ago these little one-room schoolhouses were the centers of learning
for kids in the country.

I soon learned that making variable star charts with accurate sequences was
not as easy as it looks to the uninformed amateur observer. I was fortunate
enough to get in touch with Arne Henden and Bruce Sumner a few years ago.
They took me under their wings and taught me more than I ever wanted to know
about photometry and sequences.

It still tickles me to be consulting with Arne, an astronomer at the US
Naval Observatory in Flagstaff, regarding observing targets for a meter
class telescope with a state of the art CCD and the world's leading
photometrist at the controls.

I now have hundreds of charts and sequences published on our website based
on Henden photometry, and am currently working with John Toone, Roger
Pickard and Gary Poyner to utilize this information to create BAAVSS charts
for ROP stars.

I turn in the driveway that leads to the observatory. The dome is located on
the homestead of my friends Dawna and Dennis. At star parties and
gatherings, I am often introduced as "Mike, the guy who lives in our back
yard" by them.

I park the car and step out into the night air. Most nights, all the stars
in the Little Dipper are plainly visible and the dark rift in the Milky Way
is quite obvious before eyes have become dark-adapted. M31 is often an easy
naked eye object.

The observatory is a seven-foot diameter fiberglass cylinder with a manually
rotated fiberglass dome. It houses an equatorially mounted 12" LX200. I make
no apologies for using a go-to telescope and punching in coordinates to
locate the fields of my program stars. I have done plenty of star-hopping in
my time, and not having to handle a metal telescope at ambient winter
temperatures that can exceed -30C is a distinct advantage in my opinion.

On average nights my limiting magnitude is 15.5V or better. I have seen 16th
magnitude and fainter on exceptional nights. My primary program stars are
CVs that outburst at 15V or brighter. I also observe about 500 LPVs with
faint minima more or less regularly.

My favorite objects are CVs I can follow through most or all of their cycle
and are fairly active. These would include KT Per, TZ Per, Z Cam, YZ Cnc, AT
Cnc, SY Cnc, SU Uma, ER Uma and AB Dra. Some stars I like to visit because
of the field. CY Lyr is in the midst of a nice cluster, and the Mira RX Lyr
has the ghostly smoke ring of M57 in the same low-power field of view.

Observing sessions are usually two to eight hours long, depending on the
weather and seasonal variation in the length of night. Driving half an hour
each way, my goal is always to observe as long as I can. I've averaged about
130 nights per year for the last three years. Needless to say, I have a very
understanding and supportive wife.

It's not unusual for me to watch dawn turn to sunrise as I drive home,
sometimes faster than I should, anxious to report outbursts observed during
the night.

In many ways I have come full circle, only now I feel like a kid trying to
get home in time for breakfast.

EPILOGUE:
Since this article was published in the June 2003 BAA Variable Star Section
Circular, life has taken a few more turns. In June 2003 I was put in charge
of variable star chart production for the AAVSO, so most of the variable
star charts I produce nowadays are for them. As of December 2004 most of the
CV fields calibrated by Arne Henden for the Recurrent Objects Programme and
my own observing program stars are now available online as "official" AAVSO
charts.

In July 2003 my wife and I have moved to a new home in the country and my
observatory is now conveniently located within feet of my back door.

In October 2004 I went to England to give a couple talks on variable stars
and was finally able to meet my friends Gary Poyner and Chris Jones for the first time.