Warren Bracewell - Amateur Stargazer and Community Volunteer

I was born and raised in Liberty, Texas, a small city between Houston and Beaumont. Liberty had fairly dark skies in the 50s and I loved looking up at the stars and Milky Way. My dad owned his own electrical business, so I attended Lamar University to get my Electrical Engineering degree. There I met and married my wife Donna. After graduating from Lamar, I worked for various chemical plants as an Instrument and Electrical Engineer and Maintenance Manager, which means I had to live under the bright lights of the city. I retired in 2017 and Donna and I decided to move away from the city life and traffic and found and fell in love with a place in Bryan, Texas.

I became interested in astronomy after earning my astronomy merit badge in Scouts. I got a small cheap scope, but it wasn't any good, and mostly frustrated me. I didn't pursue the hobby with any vigor again until I was about 30 years old and bought my 10" Dobsonian. It was then that the sky opened up for me. I started learning the constellations again and the Messiers associated with them. The problem was the trash light of living within the Houston metroplex. I had to go into the country to see anything other than the moon. That meant that I always took my scope camping or to the deer lease with me. Sometimes I would stay up all night looking at objects in the clear night skies, and not even hunt the next day. I love taking it to parks when we go camping, and going around inviting the parents and kids to come take a look. Sharing my love for astronomy with others is what I enjoy most about the hobby. Seeing a kid look at Saturn, Jupiter, or the moon through a telescope for the first time is amazing.

Until I joined the Brazos Valley Astronomy Club, I didn't use my scope with any regularity. This meant that I would usually go find the same objects. I would check out the brighter Messiers, any planets that were out, and the moon. I also have a solar filter, so sunspots were fun to check out. My favorite constellation has always been Orion. It is usually the first thing I put my scope on when it is out; second is Sagittarius, with all the Messiers and the Milky Way going through it. I think the most awe-inspiring thing I watched was the Shoemaker Levy 9 comet parts impacting Jupiter in 1994. Although I couldn't see the actual impacts, watching the black spots roll around the edge was fantastic. I also enjoyed watching Comets Hale-Bopp, Hyakutake, and West. We are long overdue for a bright comet like these.

My 10" Dob has always been my go-to scope. It got the name Water Heater after a scout at a state park asked me why I had a water heater in the field. I've always wanted to get an equatorial motor mount so that I could observe something for a while without having to constantly move the scope. I purchased an 11" Celestron Edge HD last December, and it fits the bill. The G0-To feature on it almost feels like cheating. Holding an image in the scope for a while made me interested with trying astrophotography. I took my new scope to the Texas Star Party last April, and used it with my brother-in-law's Cannon T3I. It was then that I learned how difficult that aspect of astronomy can be. Eventually I will get a camera for the scope, be it a direct mount or a DSLR. Hopefully, I will be experienced enough for the next TSP.