|
INTEREST |
|
DATES |
DESCRIPTION |
WHAT HAPPENED? |
|
ASTRONOMY |
 |
1975 to 1980
1988 to Present |
From 1975 to
1980, mainly viewing the Moon and brighter planets of the solar system.
From 1988 to
Present, everything you can imagine with a 3-inch, 8-inch and 11-inch telescope! |
From 1980 to 1988,
my teen years
interfered with this interest.
In 1988, I got an 8-inch
telescope as a gift for my 18th birthday. I used this telescope constantly
and stuck with astronomy to this day, but with a new 11-inch computer
controlled goto scope. |
|
SATELLITE TRACKING |
 |
1997 to Present |
I was introduced to satellite
tracking at the Royal Military College (RMC) in May 1997. Since then, I have
loved the subject with a strong passion. It continues to teach me amazing new
aspects of astronomy, and this passion is the reason this website exists. |
Satellite tracking has all but
replaced "normal" astronomy for me. Tracking satellites incorporates all
aspects of astronomy, and continues to force me to expand my knowledge of the
subject. |
|
CYCLING |
 |
1987 to Present |
I began cycling in January 1987,
when I just had to get out of the house. I found it tough to bike even 2
miles without puffing. I liked it though, and continued. After two weeks, I
biked my first 40 miles, in which I barely got home and crawled in the door.
Afterward, I routinely biked 40 to 80 miles every weekend. |
I do not consider myself a
biking or fitness fanatic. I do not bike in the rain, high winds, high
humidity or the winter months. One year, I biked only for two days, but was
back biking 20 miles every few days the year after. I still bike from March
to September, and enjoy the scenery, especially the groundhogs! |
|
ELECTRONICS |
 |
1977 to Present |
I loved electronic sets! I got
my first one in 1977, and played with it until 1980, when I got my first
100-in one electronic set. I got my 200-in one electronic kit from Radio
Shack in 1982, and learned more from burning out components than I did
building the circuits correctly! My allowance was mainly spent on junk food
and replacement components! |
I still
LOVE electronics. I design and build circuits for others from time to time, and
fix older electronic devices (such as recorders, TVs and VCRs) when they
cease to work properly. |
|
STAMP COLLECTING |
 |
1975 to 1985 |
Collecting stamps from countries
all over the world. This was not a particularly focussed interest, however. |
Basically lost interest in
favour of the other interests. I still have the stamp album though! |
|
COIN COLLECTING |
 |
1982 to 2000 |
I wanted to collect Canadian and
American pennies from the year 1900 to the year 2000. |
After the penny collections were
complete, I moved on to strengthen other interests and acquire new ones.
Both coin collections are now in my safe. |
|
AUDIO RECORDING, EDITING AND
MIXING |
 |
1975 to Present |
This began in 1975, when my
father gave me his reel-to-reel tape recorder (that I still have by the
way). I have owned about 8 audio tape recorders (3 reel-to-reel and 5
cassette). I bought one of the recorders at a garage sale (pre-EBay) for $20
Cdn. After fixing it up, it worked beautifully to this date! |
I now record and edit digitally
on my primary CASTOR computer. My computer has literally replaced all of my
audio recording devices. This saves on head cleaning time and head cleaner!
I still have three reel-to-reel
recorders, my father's old Cipher I (from 1963), my Dual one I bought at a
garage sale and fixed up (from 1970), and my TEAC X-700R that I bought (from
1988). |
|
VIDEO RECORDING, EDITING AND
MIXING |
 |
1983 to Present |
This began in 1983, when my
family bought a video cassette recorder (VCR). At that time, music videos
were all the rage, and I recorded most of them it seemed! I loved to record
comedy the most! Check out my Monty Python collection! I have owned four
video tape machines, three of which still work today, one of which I still
use regularly. |
I used video tape machines for
primary editing until 2003, when I purchased a DVD burner and video editing
software. I still use video tape for long duration recording in which I can
dump the needed portions to my computer, and eventually onto DVD. I am
hoping that this process becomes much less time-consuming within the next
few years! |
|
SHORTWAVE RADIO |
 |
1980 to 1996 |
I began listening to my father's
shortwave radio as a kid, and quickly learned Morse Code. I remember the
Soviet radio jammers and their terrible noises over much of the shortwave
bands. I was able to construct a Morse Code decoder in which my old Vic-20
computer would decode the Morse in real time off the shortwave radio and
display the message on the TV screen. |
After I began using he Internet,
I did not feel the need to strain the hear stations from other countries. I
could easily hear their broadcasts or see their news with my computer. The
Morse Decoder worked well until there was no longer any Morse on the radio
to decode. |
|
COMPUTERS |
 |
1982 to Present |
I began with a Commodore Vic-20
computer, but this mainly involved the hardware. As a learned how to use
PCs, I became familiar with the Windows operating systems and modifying
computer registries and more exotic settings. This branched to networking
between computers and creating and maintaining Local Area Networks (LANs). |
I blame the time I spent on
maintaining computers on my eventual disinterest in computer programming.
Now that I have reached some equilibrium in computer maintenance, I am ready
to become reacquainted with the subject. |
|
COMPUTER PROGRAMMING |
 |
1983 to 2001 |
This started with a Commodore
Vic-20 computer and small mistakes made in ready-made computer games. I
learned how to take apart computer code and modify games to try and make
them faster or better. I learned Pascal in 1990, and stuck with this
language until 2001. |
I am ready to learn another
computer language, and am currently starting with C++ and Java. Hopefully, I
can get familiar with object-oriented programming. |
|
CLASSICAL GUITAR PLAYING |
 |
1977 to 1982
1988 to Present |
I learned to play classical
guitar after I received a guitar as a gift for my 7th birthday. |
I am still playing for fun and
composing my own music as a hobby. |
|
CLASSICAL GUITAR COMPOSING |
 |
1988 to Present |
I wanted to try to invent new
ways to play guitar and to invent new sounds with a typical classical
guitar. |
I have composed a total of 25
classical guitar pieces, one of which is 10 pages long and lasts 7.5
minutes! |
|
SPHERICAL TRIGONOMETRY |
 |
1993 to Present |
I wanted to figure out how to
determine the angle between two objects in the sky (such as two stars) by
using only their RA and Dec. coordinates. |
I succeeded in doing so, and
derived equations for coordinate transformation, translation, astrometry,
and orbit propagation. |
|
ORBIT PROPAGATION |
 |
1992 to Present |
I became fascinated by how it is
possible to determine the orbit characteristics of a body by making just
three accurate observations. |
I can now reliably propagate any
Keplerian orbit by using its orbit characteristics, and its last known
position, by hand if necessary! |
|
ORBIT DETERMINATION |
|
1992 to Present |
I became fascinated by how it is
possible to determine the orbit characteristics of a body by making just
three accurate observations. |
I am still trying to unlock the
"secrets" of the mathematics of the process of orbit determination. This
will probably be the most difficult procedure of my life. |
|
TRAVELING |
 |
1974 to Present |
I was introduced by my military
family experience at an early age. We moved every 2 to 4 years, sometimes
2000 miles at a time! Talk about a culture shock! |
I still have to travel every two
to four years. I guess it is in my blood! I went on two massive road trips
in the summers of 2004 and 2005, basically seeing most of the continent,
including Mexico. |
|
ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY (USING FILM) |
 |
1990 to 2000 |
Using film cameras to obtain
images of the more interesting astronomical objects. Experimenting with
exposure time and different film speeds. |
Digital cameras and CCDs
replaced film cameras as my equipment of choice. |
|
CCD IMAGING |
 |
1996 to Present |
This began at Queen's University
for an astrophysics course. I quickly took to it and when I began work at
RMC, I acquired an SBIG ST-6 and began using it with a Meade Quartz 10-inch
SCT to explore the heavens in a way I never dreamed of before. |
I have now upgraded to an SBIG
ST-9XE CCD, in which I observe and track satellites on a regular basis. I
recently got an image of an ST-12 rocket body,
which was 124,000km from the camera at the time! |
|
RESTORING OLD RECORDINGS |
 |
2001 to Present |
Digitizing old records and
recordings and removing hiss and/or scratches digitally. |
I am still restoring my own
records and removing unwanted artefacts from recordings. Technology has
greatly simplified both these processes. |
|
RESTORING OLD PHOTOS |
 |
1999 to Present |
Scanning and repairing photos
and images digitally. I began with repairing my own astrophoto collection by
scanning digitally restoring them. |
I still restore photos for
others, some of which are quite challenging! There are still plenty of old
photos out there to restore! |
|
WEB
SITE DESIGN |
 |
2005
to Present |
I began this interest when I volunteered to be the
Ottawa RASC webmaster. Within 6 months I had created the CASTOR web site
from scratch. |
This interest is still a passion of mine and have
designed websites for several organizations. |
