I'm a former laser physicist (Hughes Research Labs, now HRL Labs) and have been in the medical device field for 30 years. I have primarily been involved in developing new high-tech medical devices (lasers, endoscopes, catheters, guidewires, ultrasound systems, radiation therapy systems, etc.) and assisting in startups to commercialize new medical products in interventional cardiology, interventional radiology, and various critical care and surgical specialties.

I had to make a decision as a kid - either build a telescope or a ham radio system; I chose radio & electronics. However, even in those early days, I was quite interested in optics, and built a laser in high school (a HeNe laser, following basic design from the Amateur Scientist section of Scientific American); that was in 1965, only 5 years after the first (Ruby) laser was operated at the Hughes research Laboratories, and only about 3 years after the first Helium-Neon laser had been built. My laser ended-up in the Smithsonian Institution, just due to a quirk of fate (I donated it to be part of the traveling exhibit in 1985: 25th Anniversary of the Laser). Little did I know then that I would work at the historic HRL Labs, and be involved in lasers (and medical/surgical/ophthalmic laser systems) throughout my career.

After getting married in the early 1970's, I became a Celestron dealer and finally got a telescope - a Celestron 8 (and also C5 telephoto lens). During my tenure at HRL, I was asked to teach a night course in astronomy at the Malibu campus of the Santa Monica Community College. I obtained my California community college instructor's credentials, and quickly started teaching myself astronomy. I had great fun teaching the class for two semesters, and you never learn as much as when you teach something!

Fast forward 35 years - we lived 10 years in Del Mar, CA and then 15 years in Hanalei, Hawaii. Unfortunately, I didn't do astronomy in Hawaii, other than stargazing with binoculars. We had very dark skies ... but also rain clouds every 20 minutes; however, looking back, I'm sorry that I didn't get an inexpensive mount and scope at that time. However, we did see quite a few neat atmospheric phenomena - including hundreds of green flashes of the sun.

Since 2003, I've been in northern California, East of Sacramento, about 1/3 of the way from there to Lake Tahoe in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Although we are at the edge of the light dome of Sacramento and have a lot of light pollution to the West, our skies are typically 19.5-20.1 mag/arcsec2 facing East over the Sierra. Thus, the choice of our name: "Sierra Skies Observatory".

I got back into the hobby in late 2007 when I bought a 10" LX200. I then sold it 3 months later and purchased (via Astromart) a 12" LX200R. And an ST-4000XCM camera ... with AO ... and then an external guide head ... and a RoboFocus ... and a Pyxis rotator ... and then a Megrez 90 ... then an LXD75 mount for the Megrez. And the list goes on (collection of Naglers and Panoptics, just about every astro software package, dew control, Losmandy bars, rings and counterweight system, etc.). My wife thinks I'm obsessed ...

Now that I am focusing solely on astro-imaging, I've sold most of the irrelevant items - including virtually all of my eyepieces. Interestingly, these items have held their value over the past few years - and may have been a better investment than the stock market!

I have spent over 500 nights in the past four years doing astrophotography (that was written in early 2011; it's been a lot more now) - about a third of that time from my driveway, moving the LX200 on a wheely bar into position (along with all the power supplies and electronics mounted on it). I developed a special ball-bearing mount for the wheely bar that allows placing it back into position within a few arcminutes accuracy (Driveway Mount). It has been a very steep learning curve - even for someone relatively adept at optics, electronics, and software.

As I have bumped up against limitations in my system, I continued to upgrade my equipment. In early 2009, I de-forked my 12" LX200R OTA and acquired a Paramount ME (and sold the fork mount). In March 2010, I built an observatory to house everything (formerly the Gecko observatory, based on a 2.3m Sirius dome, was originally in Dallas but disassembled, trucked 2,000 miles, and re-assembled in my backyard). In May 2010, I upgraded my ST-4000XCM one-shot-color camera to an STL-11000 large-format monochrome CCD camera, and shortly thereafter upgraded my Megrez 90 to an FSQ -106ED - the premier small imaging refractor (and sold both the ST-4K and the Megrez). In late 2011, I completely revamped my optical train (focuser, rotator, off-axis guider, filter wheel), and am beginning a new phase of my astro-imaging experience: narrowband imaging.

Everything is now run robotically and unattended, and can be operated remotely from my office in the house, or from anywhere in the world that I happen to be (I travel internationally constantly) - using my Mac or even my iPhone! I can program CCDAutoPilot before dinner, and wake up to a folder of images in the morning (assuming things go smoothly ...). I have become fairly adept at Photoshop, MaximDL and CCDStack, and am learning PixInsight and other imaging processing software and techniques, aided greatly by courses at the annual AIC conference in San Jose, and DVD instruction by Adam Block and Tony Hallas. As my observatory can be readily disassembled, I am looking at various opportunities to move it to a really dark sky site (and a site where I can see the entire sky) and begin "real" remote operation of the system.

My other hobbies include: photography; international travel; SCUBA, free diving & underwater photography; extreme (backcountry) downhill skiing; marathon running; juggling; piano & MIDI music; kayaking, windsurfing, sailing, and boating. However, astro-imaging remains my current 'passion' (as far as hobbies go).