I have had an interest in amateur astronomy since I was 12 years old in 1965. My older brother, Jim had purchased a 60mm f/15 equatorially mounted refractor telescope and I began using this telescope to observe the moon. However, I wanted to see some of those beautiful spiral galaxies, star clusters, and nebulae I’d seen in my 6th grade science book.

Fast forward twelve years…

In March 1977 I would purchase my first telescope, a 4.25-inch EQ mounted reflector. A humble telescope by todays standards, but this would begin my quest to become a serious amateur astronomer, which continues to this day.

In 1986, the year of Halley’s Comet, I became a founding member of the “newly formed” Cleveland County Astronomical Society meeting at the Lutheran Church in Shelby, NC. for a few years. The club for the past 35 years, meets once a month at the Williams Observatory on the campus of Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, North Carolina.

Photo below: That same year, we would begin meeting to observe at the Polkville airport which was our designated dark-site.