I've been interested in astronomy for as long as I can remember, starting out with a Montgomery Wards department store 60mm refractor in my early teens and progressing to a 12" SCT and 10" and 12.5" homebuilt Newtonians that I now use in my pursuit of the heavens. The beauty and tranquility of being out among the stars at a truly dark location is an incomparable experience that everyone needs to do at least once in their lifetime. The splendor of the Milky Way is a sight to behold and unfortunately, becoming a rarity, as civilization increasingly expands into rural regions.

What I do: I have changed my job and as of January, 2008, now work as a technical manager for technology development at TriQuint Semiconductor in Orlando. That ended a two year stint up in Pennsylvania with Agere Systems (bought out by LSI Logic). It was too long to be away from the family, hence the move back. As a result, I am now an officially retired technical manager from what once was formerly and proudly known as Bell Labs. Through the many divestitures and spinoffs, the name has changed from Western Electric, AT&T BL, Lucent BL, to Agere Systems, which is now part of LSI Logic. There, I managed groups of R&D engineers (mainly PhD's) to develop the semiconductor technologies utilized in producing chips for today's RF needs, including consumer and wireless applications. Things are winding down with respect to technologies, but it had been a fun ride these past 28 years!

My Hobbies: In addition to astronomy, I enjoy competitive league volleyball (sand and indoors), computers, high-end audio, home theater, woodworking and traveling with the family in our travel trailer. I am currently an active member of the Central Florida Astronomy Society and help out on the Observing Committee. I have also been part of the Chiefland Astronomy Club for a number of years, attending their well known star parties.

I've also been fortunate now to have a few of my images actually published in color print. If you are interested, check out the page listing the publications.

My Family: I've been married to my wonderful wife since 1979, having initially met in the University of Buffalo's chemical engineering school across the physics lab table in '77 (I invited her to join our lab group - not too shabby for an extremely shy 20 year old). We have two great boys, who follow my interests in computers. Both have accompanied me to the dark side (oops, I meant dark sites) and can take partial credit on some of these images. They are both excellent artists and love drawing and computers (both games and building the hardware.

Thanks for taking the time to view this web site. Please email me if you have any questions about this site or the content!