(observatory roof clunking open) - My biggest thing that I like to do is discover stuff. And not necessarily things that have already been discovered. I really like to discover things that haven't been discovered yet.
If you take an asteroid and you discover an asteroid, for example, even though there's half a million of 'em out there, that's one you've found. Nobody else in the world knew about that asteroid before you saw it. (ambient space music) (rapid sproing) (background space music) What I've been doing here lately, and for about 15, 16 years now, I've been working with near-Earth objects.
My observations contribute to making sure that we don't have something comin' up that's gonna fall on our heads. Kind of first got into it, probably 10, 12 years old. I was beggin', beggin', beggin' to get a telescope, but then, you know, we weren't a very rich family, so it took a while to get it.
And one Christmas I got telescope. Then, I started usin' it, then I got aperture fever. You want bigger telescopes all the time.
So, I started learning how to build 'em. (quick, perky music) I learned how to work in a machine shop. I can build things that I wanted to build.
And a lot of that was astronomy parts. I kind of modified my life to fit this study, this kind of life-long study. (intensifying, perky music) (clock ticking) Sandlot is a very tiny little observatory.
It's only 10 foot by 10 foot wide. The telescope I built, over a period of about year and a half, and it may not look very polished, it works really well. I'm good with that.
(ambient space music) (rapid clicking) (rapid clicking) (rapid droning) I don't have a degree in astronomy, I have a passion for astronomy, and I've done it for many, many years, and I've contributed, I think, to the scientific body of astronomy. That's really kind of a, yeah, from that standpoint, I am an astronomer.
