soi

I have been an amateur astronomer off and on since the late 1960s when I was a youngster. I joined AAVSO in the early 70s, but let my membership lapse after entering college (just too many other things to do). I earned a bachelor's degree in astronomy/physics in 1977, then went on to graduate school to study optical engineering and laser physics in the early 1980s. I worked professionally in several physics disciplines after that, but my interest in astronomy (amateur and professional) returned in the early 90s, though it was not my primary job. I was pleased to be able to do some computational astrophysics in the modeling of pulsating variable stars in the 1990s while I was at Los Alamos National Lab. I rejoined AAVSO at that time, and have been a member ever since. After Los Alamos I worked for three major observatories as a telescope operator and instrumentation specialist. These days I am retired but I occasionally get out into dark sky locations to do some variable star observing. I am an avid user of robotic telescope networks to perform CCD photometry.I also still do some collaborative work in computational modeling of pulsating variables with colleagues at Los Alamos. My interest as an amateur now is observing DCEP, W Vir, RV Tau, and SRD variables. I am also trying my hand at light curve data analysis.