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 I
have always had some fascination with the stars, but
my interests didn't blossom until I purchased an 8 inch
Celestron while in college. Even though I wasn't an
astronomy major, I landed a job as a physics lab assistant
teaching observational astronomy at the institute's
observatory with access to a 14 inch Celestron telescope.
After college, I joined the US Navy as an Aviation Officer
and tried my hand at flying. During this time I participated
in several star parties with the local Astronomy club.
After I got off active duty, I moved to Washington D.C.
where I joined the Naval Reserve Intelligence program.
I continued my astronomy volunteerism by conducting
a monthly star party from the top of my 26 story tall
condo complex, even though the seeing from DC is not
always favorable. In 1985, I moved from DC to Denver
Colorado and began work for then Martin Marietta (now
Lockheed Martin Aerospace). I began work on the Kinetic
Energy Weapon project where I began learning about near-earth
satellites and orbital mechanics. In 1986, I started
working on the Titan IV Launch Vehicle program in the
Range Safety group performing numerous flight trajectory
analyses. In 1989, while still in the Naval Reserves,
I was assigned to an intelligence unit working at NORAD
for two years, which opened my eyes to the capabilities
of military space assets. In 1996, I had the opportunity
to work on the Mars Global Surveyor program and a spacecraft
test engineer where I was able to test many of the command
and control systems of the MGS itself in a test lab
environment.
I initially assisted with the monthly Colorado Skies
presentations and frequent star parties, I've been doing
so ever since. In 1990, I was asked by the Gates Planetarium
Astronomer if I would like to join him in establishing
an astronomy youth group at the museum. The IAAS began
shortly thereafter. Initially, the group focused on
astronomy but soon branched out to include archaeoastronomy,
aerospace, and radio communications, based in large
part to my involvement with Lockheed Martin. I also
helped develop the IAAS's current Star Carnival program
in which our students present what they have learned
to local schools and public groups. In 1996, I upgraded
my Amateur Radio license from Technician Plus to Advanced
Class and began the Colorado Astronomy Net which meets
on a local repeater each Tuesday night discussing topics
of an astronomical nature including current JPL mission
updates. In conjunction with the Astronomy Net, I began
publishing a monthly Astronomy Newsletter initially
for local interests, but it has now expanded to a global
circulation of over 100 recipients. An on-line version
of the newsletter can be found at http://home.att.net/~bfa3/astro.html.
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