IYA 2009 MALTA - Sammy GRECH

My interest in astronomy goes back to when I was very young. I remember looking at the night sky and asking my grandma what the stars were. She would answer that God made the stars for all to enjoy - may be that’s not so easy nowadays due to excessive light pollution. I grew up reading about astronomy and experimenting in telescope making. My career as a marine engineer, spending lots of time at sea, also helped in keeping me close to the night sky in all its glory far away from any form of man made lighting. During 1976 I ground and polished a 10 inch Pyrex mirror, which later I mounted as a Newtonian telescope supported in an equatorial fork mounting. The completed telescope was housed in a ten foot rotating dome which I constructed out of galvanized steel and fiberglass on the roof of my residence. I have used this instrument mainly for planetary and lunar observations.

Since 2004 I have participated in producing a weekly radio program on astronomy which is also streamed on the internet. This has fulfilled my wish to be able to share the knowledge of astronomy with the public in general.