Amateur Astronomy – The Next 50 Years. Johnny Horne reflects on his time spent in the hobby…and plans for the future.
Johnny Horne started off talking about where he grew up and lived his entire life. This is Stedman, NC. He had the advantage of being able to see the same sky his entire life. He has been interested in astronomy since age ten. The other topics included his observatory, the eclipses that he has seen and a general talk about the state of amateur astronomy. He is well known in our club and has spoken
quite a few times before. The lecture went really well.
Johnny Horne started off talking about his observatory that he has in his backyard. He showed pictures of it being built and talked about the different challenges of building this observatory. The observatory has been operational for 35 years. He also discussed how the town of Stedman is growing and how the light pollution is affecting the observing.
Next, he described various eclipses that he has seen or tried to see. The first one was in Buffalo, NY May 30, 1994. The second was in Ship Rock, NM – 18 years later. There were close to 100 people or so that were observing as well.
The last section included a general talk. He mused on how to get younger people interested in astronomy. This generated
some discussion from the audience as well. He also talked about how there was no such thing as the perfect telescope. At the end he took questions. This generated a great deal of participation from the audience.
