who we are – Observatory livestreams and star events

Laura Nasise, R.N.

Co-Founder of Star Chaserz, Inc.

I have had the great privilege of being born and raised in Northern California. My home town for twenty years sits in one of the darkest areas not only of California, but 30 miles east is the Massacre Rim Wilderness which is one of the darkest skies in the contiguous U.S. and it is designated as a Dark Sky Sanctuary.

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MIKE RYAN

Biography of Presenter Mike Ryan

Mike Ryan is the current president and 58-year member, of the San Mateo County Astronomical Society (SMCAS). He's a career automotive, aerospace and systems engineer, but has served on astronomy staffs at the Academy of Science's Morrison Planetarium in San Francisco, at the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, and at the College of San Mateo back in the 1960's.

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Brent Simons

Biography of Brent Simons

Brent, a retired electronics engineer, spent many years of his career designing satellite systems. He has been interested in astronomy since acquiring his first telescope at age 12. “The bad news is that growing up and working in the Bay Area limited the objects that could be viewed due to the large amount of light pollution.” Astrophotography was put on the back burner for the next 40 years.

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Norman C. Nasise, M.D.

Biography of Co-Founder Norman C. Nasise, M.D.

Me with my 20” Dobsonian in my newly constructed observatory.

I always had an interest in science. I was child of the space race between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. I remember looking up and in the evening sky and seeing Sputnik and Muttnik fly overhead. I remember seeing the news on TV that Yuri Gagarin was the 1st human being launched in space. I stayed home from school and watched every Mercury launch from Alan Shepard to Gordon Cooper. When I was in 6th grade we took a field trip to the Peabody Museum, and the Hayden Planetarium.

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My family moved to California in 1962. There at age 12 I first peered at the Moon through a telescope. It was my neighbor's 8" Newtonian reflector that he built from WWII surplus parts. I wanted to look through it so often he finally gave it to me. I took it home, pulled it apart, and refurbished it. I loved it! I remember being awed by the rings of Saturn and the bands stretching across Jupiter. I remember going to a local camera shop and finagling an old bellows camera from the owner. I mounted the old camera to the telescope tube. and took prime focus photos of the moon. I adjusted focus until the image was sharp on a piece of ground glass at the back of the camera. I removed the ground glass, loaded the camera with a roll of TriX film and began snapping. I thought they were great then, but horrible by today’s standards. I still have some of them! I was hooked on “telescope making” and astronomy.

By the age of fourteen, I constructed my own telescope. It was not very sophisticated by today’s standards, but it was mine and I could not have been prouder! Sky and Telescope graced my shelves. I waited with anticipation of what the next issue had to offer. As soon as the magazine was in my mailbox, I had it in my hand, running to my room, thumbing through the pages with each step.

Upon graduating high school I attended junior college. There I joined the local Astronomical Society. I then attended the University of California where I graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science degree. From there I attended medical school. After finishing my residency I moved to a small town in Northern California, which at that time had a “very dark” sky, to build an observatory and to practice medicine. The observatory housed my Dobsonian mounted 20 inch Newtonian f/5 telescope along with computerized equipment to view the dark heavens above. That lasted for about ten years. Several large companies, such as a car dealership, Wal-Mart Distribution Center and a Home Depot, had moved into the area and destroyed the night sky.

Tired of my complaining, my wife came up with a unique idea. I had planned on purchasing land in the Mt. Shasta area of California to build my new observatory. Laura expressed concern with this proposal due to my busy work schedule and difficulty finding the time to commute to the new observatory. I challenged her to come up with a better idea, and she did just that. She had seen in a magazine, an advertisement for a GMC EUV Envoy with a retractable roof. She suggested that I could purchase this type of a vehicle and place a telescope within the cargo bay. With this unique vehicle I could use my scope at any location that I desired. It was at that moment the idea of our mobile observatory was born.

For the next six months, I worked in my garage coming up with a lift that would be able to elevate my telescope out of my new Envoy. I purchased a 14-inch Meade Telescope and had a computer designed specifically for my mobile observatory. A year later, my wife and I traveled to Big Bear Lake, California, for the 2006 RMTC Astronomy Expo. We were so pleased with the excitement and praises we received from the attendees.