When this blog was started in 2012 it was long after someone important to it had died. Bill Galbraith, my father, passed away in the mid-1990s. Everything about the idea of observing the night sky at Pine River/Lurgan Beach can be traced back to him. Bill was a chemical engineer who had broad scientific and nature interests. In the 1960s he bought a 4.5 inch reflecting telescope for the family, in part to inspire me to be interested in science at the same time that the American Apollo program was pushing toward the 1969 moon landing.
Bill Galbraith became well known to his neighbours at Lurgan Beach for bringing the telescope out for looking at the moon and the brightest planets. While not a great telescope it did a decent job on the moon, and even now, 50 years later, I often hear from friends in the area who recall dad and his “huge telescope.”
The telescope itself was a common model – a Tasco 4.5 inch. There’s a detailed review of this scope on line at: http://uncle-rods.blogspot.com/2008/07/good-tasco.html. I still have the telescope, in its original, somewhat beaten-up box.
Dad inspired me to follow science as a career, and I still love astronomy, although my career choice was biology. The idea of a Pine River (Virtual) Observatory and this blog are dedicated to his memory.
Pine River Observ-atory 