A long time ago ...

in a glalaxy not that far away … in fact it was on this very same planet, a 14 year old boy stumbled upon a page in his Encyclopedia Britannica entitiled"Astronomy!".

That was the defining moment almost 23 years ago. My father had just purchased his whole new set of the hard covered, golden colored, 24 volume, Encyclopedia Britannica, the best part of the deal was a bonus set of 12 volumes of maroon colored Children's Encyclopedia - that was for me and my younger brother. My dad taught me how to use it as a reference for any topic you can think of (well, just about).

Although he was not an engineer or scientist, my father has always been fascinated by science and technology. Every now and then he will tell us all about what he's read and about the wonders of science in our everyday lives. Inspired by his vast knowledge in that area, I then decided to go thru the encyclopedia from cover to cover, going thru all the possible topics in a effort to "learn all things possible" - unfortunately that effort ended at the Astronomy chapter when I decided further explore by finding other references on this topic to quench my intense curiosity and fascination for the night sky ...