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I was born on March 19 1955 in Windlesham, Surrey, England.I work as a
technical trainer in the Alcatel-Lucent University, UK.I live in
Chippenham, Wiltshire.
I am married to Helga, who comes from Santiago in Chile, in 1989 and we have a daughter, Marcela, who was born on October 30 1990. We have a dog, Charlie, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (Blenheim), a rabbit called Benji and guinea pig named Rosita.
You can contact me via pugh@alcatel-lucent.com or astrosaint_55@hotmail.co.uk.
I was first interested in
astronony as a child while growing up near Ascot, Berkshire, England.
Here is a brief account of my history as an astronomer.
Notwithstanding the unsuitability of the instrument, I managed to see lunar craters and mountains, the phases of Venus and Jupiter's moons. I also found Uranus and Neptune and remember the Leonid storm of 1966. The year was also memorable for my demonstration of a solar eclipse using projection, the World Cup and my first year at grammar school. On a more sombre note, it was also the year of the Aberfan disaster.
1969 was memorable for Neil
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the moon and Monty Python's Flying
Circus. It was also the year that fishing, competitive chess and the
impending arrival of O Levels relegated the telescope to
the attic. I later gave it to a cousin.
A business visit to Canberra led me to see the southern Milky Way around Scorpio and Sagittarius and I went up a mountain with one of the customers to see Jupiter and Saturn through a 6" reflector.
In the autumn of 1996 I bought the refractor and started to explore the planets in more detail. I continued to use the binoculars for casual browsing. I made odd visits to the Wiltshire Astronomical Society, where I first saw the Beehive, which is still one of my favourite objects.
The mid/late 1990s saw the visits of Comets Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp to the inner solar system, which I followed before naked eye visibility. When I first saw Hyakutake, I was amazed by its sheer apparent size at 9 million miles from Earth. It was also around this period that I bought Astronomy Now magazine and the Cambridge Star Atlas to find more objects to look at. I made several business trips to South Africa where I found the Southern Cross and Clouds of Magellan for the first time. I took the binoculars in my hand luggage. I also caught my first sighting of Mercury from abroad (Canary Islands) and England.
At the changeover from 1999 to 2000, I was in Chile using my catadioptric reflector, as it fits nicely in my hand luggage, with the mount in a suitcase. I began to explore double stars such as Alpha Centauri, as well as show my in-laws Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon. I also found other interesting sights, such as the Jewel Box. Some objects, such as M41 are technically visible from the UK but are seen much better from the southern hemisphere.
The return to England was disastrous, as I hurt my back very badly and observing was restricted to very little during 2000 and the early part of 2001. However, in October 2000, I had a business trip to Argentina followed by a visit to the in-laws, where I saw Uranus and re-visited the southern sky. 2001 was meant to be the "observer's year" but it wasn't to be. I added a camera tripod and some eyepieces to my equipment portfolio and my wife presented me with some money to buy binoculars. I saw Venus's phase before sunset the day they arrived.
It was later in the year that I got the all clear on the back and was fully fit by May when Mars was close enough to the earth to see planetary detail with the refractor. I also built a set of solar filters for all my equipment and started to monitor the sun. I even gave public viewing sessions some lunch breaks at work! The remainder of the year was filled with uncovering new binocular objects while keeping up with Jupiter and Saturn. I also found Neptune when it was near Mars.
In 2004 added a Skywatcher Startravel 80mm short tube refractor for travelling and wide field views.
It was during this period that I started to write articles for "Astronomy Now" .
