I grew up in New York City and became interested in astronomy as a young kid, when my mother took me to the Hayden Planetarium. I am a professor of physics and astronomy at the College of San Mateo, a member of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), and a member of NITARP (NASA/IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program). CSM has a great observatory with numerous telescopes, including a 20” Ritchey-Chretien. We offer an Astroimaging and Observatory Operation Certificate, in which students use our telescopes to tackle projects in spectroscopy, photometry and multicolor imaging. Some of their projects included spectroscopic analysis of the P Cygni profile of the star P Cygni, using photometry to determine the transit of Qatar-1b, an exoplanet, and multicolor imaging of the Bubble Nebula in Cassiopeia. When I am not teaching, I like to relax by riding my Harley and stargaze from my backyard in Pacifica.
