Artikkeli kuuluu kategoriaan : Blogs
Mika Luostarinen - History
History | Gallery | Instruments
Here is a brief history of my hobby
I started my astronomical adventures at age 7 when I made my first
observations of moon thru a modest binocular. I still remember the
amazing feeling when I saw the craters and valleys of moon.
The first telescopes
I got my first 2" refractor at age 10 and quickly after that my first 3" reflector which was followed by 4.5" reflector. The 4.5" RET reflector became my primary instrument for about 6 years. I used it succesfully in Espoo and under the dark skies of Kirkkonummi. When I went to army in 1986 and after that moved to the center of Helsinki I wasnt able to continue my hobby as intensively as I wanted. When I finally moved from the center of Helsinki to a sub-urban area in 1996 I was suddenly seeing stars again :)
Variables enter the picture ...
At that time, after a long pause in astronomy, I just read astronomy related books and magazines for a year or two. Then I found an article in Sky&Telescope magazine about an old man called Albrecht who has been observing variable stars more than 60 years. The article was well written and inspiring.
Suddenly the idea to watch how stars evolve and change started to sound very interesting. So, in 1999 I decided to start observing variable stars myself too.
... and a new telescope was ordered
So I went and ordered a MEADE SCT 10" telescope from a local dealer (Teknofokus) and after waiting 3 weeks I received the telescope in June 1999.
This time the summer was especially long because I was waiting the
dark nights of autumn. Finally in september 1999 my telescope saw the
first light in Sysmä. The views it delivered were excellent. Deep-Sky
objects were easily visible and I could see stars down to about 14
magnitudes. I also wrote some stories about my first observations.
Starting to observe
Since then I have been observing in Sysmä, Helsinki and
Espoo. Ofcourse the skies in Helsinki and Espoo are more
light-polluted than the dark skies in Sysmä but still it's possible to
make real observations about variable stars even in a suburban area.
Currently I focus mostly on cataclysmic variables (CVs) and long-period Mira-stars (LPVs). CVs are also scientifically valuable targets. To date (30.6.2004) I have made more than 1300 variable star observations and the number is growing almost every clear night. Update 15.1.2008: Now I have made about 3784 measurements.