While I've been a motorcycle rider since I was 15, my other life long hobby predates that. As a kid, I always liked science, and growing up during the Moon race lit the amateur astronomer fire in me. Along with a Spyder in my garage, I also have a telescope in the backyard. While great roads and scenery are important to riding, living under dark skies has always been a dream of mine. A year and a half ago we bought a house in rural Arizona and instead of driving over an hour to dark skies, I now walk to the backyard. Before, we lived in Western Washington, a place I called astronomy hell. Mostly cloudy skies except for short, beautiful summers which unfortunately, because of the latitude, came with very short nights. After 30+ years living there, I found I had lost much of my knowledge of the winter skies because they were so often hidden. Here, in the Arizona desert, summer is my down time, both with my scopes and with my bike. Temps in my observatory can regularly exceed 120°F so the scope gets packed away. I just can't bring myself to go for a ride when temps exceed 100°F. I haven't been here long enough for that yet.
I also have a broader interest/hobby, and that's a human one - literally - that split off from my amateur astronomy interests. Because amateur astronomy is a visual hobby, I became interested in how the human eye/brain system works and learning about human visual perception; then split off into perception overall; and how the brain processes input from the senses. This split again into learning about the evolution of the human brain, and the dawn of self-awareness and abstract thinking. All this taken together also got me interested in human behavior. Oh, yeah, during the COVID years I became interested in virology and the history of pandemics, which led to origin of life theories (which is also part of astronomy and the search for life elsewhere) Did I mention I've always had an interest in science?
Photos are of my main scope - a 12-inch, Y2K era, Meade LX200 Schmidt Cassegrain. On the top of the 12" is my 4" Solar Scope. Besides those two scopes, I have a 6" Refractor and a 94mm Refractor. I've been imaging the Sun in various wavelengths for over 2 decades; the planets for about 5 years; and I am now dabbling in deep sky stuff. Examples attached: Sun in h-alpha (red); white light (sunspots); and Calcium-K wavelength (violet); Jupiter and two of its moons; a supernova in another galaxy; and the Andromeda Galaxy. I enjoy regular photography too. There's more - Enough that I like to say: "Hi, my name is Tom, and I'm a Hobbyholic."
Now you know where the Astro part of my screen name comes from.
