[Patterson (Wayne)]

Received some very encouraging replies to my earlier posts when I didn't know anybody, so thought I'd have another crack at ancient history.

1957 was a very good year for a young amateur astronomer. I'd just finished my first telescope, an 8 inch f8 reflector whose construction I mentioned earlier. In the middle of a Canadian winter I was busy observing, oblivious to the minus 15 degree temperatures. My parents thought I was a lunatic. It was during one of these sessions that I first learned of a thing called frostbite. Finding it difficult to do things with gloves on, (and anyway gloves were for wimps), I went bare-handed for an hour or so. The thing about frostbite is that you don't realize the onset until it's too late, just a slight ache in the fingers which goes away after a while. It's when you get inside and begin to warm up that it hits. The agony was unbearable. I thought my fingers were gone for good but I was very lucky, just a bit of skin fell off in the days following.

1957 was also an International Geophysical Year. The Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Canada called for volunteers to participate in a meteor observation program and I was one of the first cabs off the rank. With forms in hand, lying comfortably on a lawn chair and staring eastward at 4 AM in the morning, I recorded hundreds of meteors and had a grand time during meteor showers. The Perseids were particularly good that year. My parents by now were quite convinced I was a lunatic.

And who could forget 4 Oct. 1957. Sputnik 1 was launched and I watched goggle-eyed as this second magnitude star floated serenely across the sky, disappearing suddenly into the earth's shadow. Even my parents were impressed and my lunatic status diminished somewhat. A month later along came Sputnik 2 which was even more eye-popping, as I recall almost as bright as Jupiter. Having a dog myself I wasn't too happy that there was also a doggy up there in Sputnik 2 with a short life span. But somebody had to be first.

And that was 1957, the beginning of the space age, and suddenly being an amateur astronomer meant that you weren't a complete weirdo after all. Somewhere between being really cool and a total nerd, which wasn't bad when you're 13.