About

The Garden Astronomer has been featured by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Essencional.com, and The Actual Astronomy Podcast. My sincere gratitude to them and others who take time to visit the site. Clear skies!

Since I was a child, I have been passionate about amateur astronomy and have been lucky to witness many beautiful objects in the night sky. However, I regret to say that I never kept a record of my observations over the years. I tended to move quickly from one object to the next as if I had no time to spare. But my perspective changed on a special April evening in 2020.

That evening, amidst the dark days of the COVID pandemic, I realized how many years and memorable nights at the telescope had passed by so quickly. I had nothing in writing to remember the starry skies. So, I started journaling and eventually decided to archive my personal observations online like many fellow enthusiasts have done.

Though I built this site as a personal diary, I realize it may be helpful, especially for new amateur astronomers and young enthusiasts. Like many, I struggle to uncover the heavens doused in suburban light pollution—my area has Bortle Class 7-8 skies. I also contend with a good dose of clouds in the Pacific Northwest. I present these facts to encourage and assure fellow city dwellers that many objects are indeed within grasp with a decent telescope or pair of binoculars.

Spending a night studying the universe from one’s backyard is still possible in the 21st century. Those of us observing under urban/suburban conditions may not enjoy inky-black skies, but the firmament remains rich with endless wonders. Many astronomical observations abound. It would be a shame to let any poor sky dissuade us from a lifetime of observing.

At the bottom of this page, I include further reflection on those early days of the pandemic and how a special night in April sparked my interest in astronomy and inspired me to write about it.

Talk to amateur astronomers, and you’ll most likely hear a story about their first time looking through a telescope. I bet many people may say that seeing Saturn or Jupiter for the first time made them fall in love with astronomy.

I’m no different. I still remember crawling out of my bedroom window onto the roof with my pair of binoculars to view Saturn. I also recall nights chasing down Halley’s Comet in 1986 and, later that year, landing upon my first star clusters: Messier 4 and Messier 41. To this day, globular clusters are still my favorite astronomical objects. They are like chandeliers hanging in a hallway on the way to heaven.

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Current Telescopes

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PRIMARY EYEPIECES

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Favorite Star Apps

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On January 21, 2020, doctors announced the first confirmed COVID-19 case in the United States. The man diagnosed with COVID-19 lived a few miles from my house in Seattle. Family and friends started calling, asking if my family was staying safe near the U.S. epicenter of the mysterious disease. I thought the health crisis would fizzle out within weeks and remain a localized problem. I was terribly wrong. The virus spread maliciously from our neighborhoods to the rest of the country.

The winter clouds of the Pacific Northwest in March 2020 matched the nightly news gloom as we dove deeper into the pandemic. I held a privileged position, as my occupation allowed me to work from my home office, while my daughter participated in remote schooling across the hall. My wife, on the other hand, was furloughed. 

Then, a rare streak of clear and warmer days ushered in the month of April. The weather inspired evening walks, bringing respite from depressing days. Approaching home one evening, I noticed a light flickering through the Douglas fir trees. I jogged to the garden, where my eyes met with the solemn light of Venus. I stood and stared at the Evening Star, reminiscing about my childhood when I used my department store refractor to view the planet. I smiled as the memory changed to sitting on the roof of my two-story house outside Denver, with a pair of binoculars, desperately trying to locate Halley’s Comet in 1986.

I’ve maintained my love of astronomy over the years, but the busyness of life repeatedly took me away from my passion.

But on that night in early April 2020, I decided to observe the night sky from a new perspective. No longer would I take my love for astronomy for granted. I started dedicating my evenings to writing down my observations and my reflections about each object I found.