My husband is a man of many hobbies; WWII buff, photographer, videographer, coffee connoisseur and amateur astronomer.   We love Dan and love to be apart of all of his interests, no matter how geeky or complex.  Today we tagged along to the SouthWest Washington Stargazers(SWS) club in Battleground, WA.  It was started by an astrophysicist and owner of Sean’s Astronomy Shop.  Sean is getting ready to travel to Mongolia for both business and pleasure.  Business means hunting for meteorites and pleasure as is for all astronomers, stargazing and viewing the solar eclipse.  He’ll have a excellent view of the southern skies.  He currently has pieces from mars, the moon and meteorites.  He hopes to acquire more for his collection.  They are available for sale if you care to spend $40-60k but I think they serve more as teaching tools than anything else.

The club meetings are interesting.  Talks are given about a variety of space related topics.  From information of what you can currently view,to space exploration and my favorite the space elevator.  Photographs of God’s handiwork are spectacular.  I would encourage you to look for a club near you or visit an observatory.  Seeing any object from a telescope is exciting and humbling.  You’ll never forget it.

I’ve always enjoyed the sciences but when I entered a room full of older gentlemen, I didn’t think we would have any shared interests.  By the end of the meeting I discovered an interest in astronomy and I look forward to the next meeting.

The Pleiades

This is my favorite space object.  Through a telescope the stars twinkle like diamonds.