"I have a lot of astronomy books on the bookshelves so I can feel knowledgeable," said Eric Gershwin, the chairman of clinical immunology at the University of California, Davis, about the control room in his home's observatory in Davis. An avid amateur astronomer, Gershwin, 61, had the observatory built 10 years ago and has been tweaking the instrumentation and control systems ever since. "You're never done," he said. "Right now I'm updating the computers."
Helping people with the installation and computerization of observatories has become a sideline for Kris Koenig, 45, a video producer from Chico, California, who specializes in astronomy-themed productions.
"It started a couple of years ago, when I helped set up the digital equipment in some public and private observatories locally," Koenig said, adding that he is now getting at least half a dozen calls for assistance a month just through word of mouth. He charges US$500 to US$1,000 an hour depending on the difficulty of the job, plus travel expenses. His most recent project involved linking a California home observatory's telescope to an entertainment center, so the images could be broadcast on a big-screen television.
The work is gratifying, he said. "It's great that so many people want to bring the universe home."
RSS