The Great Unknown

As a child, living in the mountains wasn't very cool.  I couldn't ride my bike to my friend's house or to the local ice cream parlor and I surely didn't live in a cul-de-sac.  My days out of school were spent exploring, pretending large rocks were rocket ships and riding my bike down dangerous rock roads.   My nights however, were spent starring up into the night sky.


Like so many of you, as I starred up into the night sky, I was lost in thought.  So many questions and yet very little answers.  I knew of the milky way, the planets, stars, etc.  But little did I know.


Time flew by, and to tell you the truth, my love for astronomy was merely a hobby.  My true desire as a child was to become an inventor.  I was really good at rigging up "inventions" with all of my parents stuff.  This only made them furious, as I was ruining and wasting their good "stuff".  At the time,  I really felt they just lacked imagination.  


Before I knew it, I was all grown up.  Many things changed, but there was one thing that never did.  I never stopped spending those hours in the early morning starring up into the Great Unknown.  So what did I do next, you ask?


I saved up some money and purchased this baby:

A Celestron 14 inch Dobsonian telescope.


I became a true amateur astronomer.  My favorite things to view were saturn, the orion nebula, and the moon.  (Did you know that you should view the moon last while using a telescope? Leave a comment and tell me why! :p)


These days, I try my best to view all of the meteor showers I can and estimate how many meteors I see per hour.  Of course if my studies allow it.


My interests in physics began by looking up into the night sky, into the great unknown and asking many many questions.  I'm still asking questions...


Below are a few articles I wrote regarding meteor showers:


Leonid Meteor Shower Local Watching Locations


Review of the 2010 Leonid Meteor Shower in Southern California

2010 Geminid Meteor Shower