WHO IS STARGAZER STEVE?
Ever since a special grade teacher gave him a little book about the stars, Steve has been looking for better ways to share the joy of discovering the Universe above with more and more people. For most of his life he has been an amateur astronomer and telescope maker, Steve studied Physics to the MSc level, and later founded an astronomy club at the North Bay Ontario high school where he taught Science. In 1982 he moved to Sudbury to set up Astronomy programs for the public at Science North.
In 1981 Steve built a giant trailer-mounted telescope which won two awards at the annual Stellafane Telescope Maker’s Convention at Springfield, Vermont. With this telescope, Science North held, in 1985, the first public observation in Canada of the returning Halley’s Comet. While working with countless new stargazers during 10 years at Science North and answering questions about telescopes it became clear that first-time scope buyers had to face a difficult choice: on the one hand there were cheap, shaky, poorly designed telescopes, and on the other hand very expensive ones which worked well.
To solve this dilemma, Steve combined the best features of the classic starter reflecting telescope of the 1950’s and ’60’s with the advantages of a superior design in hand-crafted wood. He then devoted himself to providing a superior experience of the sky by producing this scope at a truly affordable price.
With this 14-foot giant telescope, Steve pioneered the use of equatorial platforms on large Dobsonian scopes to track with an electric drive. from 1981 to 1984 it held the record for the biggest scope ever seen at Stellafane and it won two Stellafane awards because of its unique mount and drive.