OJJ

Though I wasn't really aware of him at the time, I lived in Leslie Peltier's home town of Delphos, Ohio in 1962. Years later and as an adult I payed a visit again to that town taking pictures of his old observatory. It is only coincidental to all of this that I became interested in astronomy and science in general around age 11.

I dabbled in astronomy throughout my teens and astrophotography into my twenties, took up flying gliders for about 10 years. Did wave soaring reaching over 28,000ft in oxygen equipped gliders.

Became much more serious about variable stars in 1996 doing visual observations through an 8inch SCT. Then built a 20"/F4.0 Alt-Az, Newtonian scope w/field de-rotator and electronic focuser and use that pretty regularly for V-band and I-band photometry. Scope is housed in a roll-off roof observatory at 8,300ft in the Colorado Rockies and remotely controlled 250' away from the house. Because the drive and mount is barely adequate at times, I am building a fork mount that will house the same optics that should allow for more autonomous operations;i.e. more sleep. I am now transforming probably 98% of the V and I data I submit.

I've become pretty passionate about astronomy and science in general. I'm thrilled to be able to make contributions, however modest to the field.