Steve Wheeler
Astrophotographer
Steve Wheeler has been a member of the BSAS since January 2004, having rekindled a lifelong interest in backyard observing. "As a kid, I used to borrow my sister's binoculars and climb up on the roof to look at the Moon and stars—with absolutely no idea what I was looking at! Now that the big 4-0 has come and gone, I guess I was looking for a hobby or interest that would hearken back to those days of wonder and discovery."
In early 2003, he began perusing the sky with a pair of binoculars he picked up on clearance at Wal Mart ("Ten bucks for 12x50s - what a deal!"). He then chose the "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" approach to purchasing a telescope. "First I bought a 6" reflector on an EQ mount with NO IDEA just how big this thing was! It was way too awkward to lug up to my deck, so I sold it and down-sized to an ETX 70. The ETX proved to be way too small to see anything, so I sold it as well. What I have now seems to be 'just right'."
Steve uses an Orion SkyView Pro 100mm f6 mounted on the SkyView pro mount equipped with RA/DEC drives. For imaging, Steve uses a Nikon CoolPix 4300 digital camera coupled to the telescope with a William Optics DCL-28 eyepiece adapter, a Borg non-rotating helical focuser, and a Baader Fringe Killer filter.
Steve lives in Williamson County with his wife Leslie and daughters Mary Katherine (5) and twins Sophie and Blair (2½). Steve is a trainer for the Church Resources division of LifeWay Christian Resources, and serves on the BSAS mentoring/outreach committee.
You can see Steve's latest astrophotography at his SGT Observatory website (SGT = Steve's Garage Telescope, by the way). Members of TNAstronomy on Yahoo! Groups can see more of Steve's pictures in the "Steve's Pics" folder.
All images copyright © 2003-2004 by Steve Wheeler
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