Updates 2025!

It’s been quite a while since I’ve written one of these, so I figured it was time to write into the void of the Internet and share some updates 😊

So first for something non astronomy related! Over the past couple years, I’ve gotten sucked into the Yoga world and it’s been great! I’m completely obsessed with it and am probably in the best shape of my life, and at the ripe old age of 43. This past winter I took a teacher training for Yoga Sculpt and am now a certified Yoga Instructor for Yoga Sculpt, Namaste! Here’s a pic of the awesome group of Yogi’s I had the privilege of learning with:

This year started off great astronomy-wise as well with me and another amazing volunteer being chosen as the Volunteers of the Year at Mount Wilson Observatory! Such an incredible honor and I’m looking forward to seeing who is chosen next year. Here’s a pic of myself along with Sam Hale, the Grandson of the observatory founder George Ellery Hale. The physical award is a stunning print of a glass plate exposure of the Orion Nebula taken by George Ritchey from the 60in Telescope captured in 1908:

This year I was also asked to join the Mount Wilson Institute team as an Assistant Events Coordinator, which was such an amazing opportunity! This year we had more public events than any year prior, ranging from Concerts in the 100in Dome to Movie Matinees, Talks and Telescopes, as well as incredible Star Parties put on by the Los Angeles Astronomical Society. Here I am with my amazing and wonderful parents who I put to work as volunteers for one of the Concerts in the 100in Dome while they were in California visiting.

This year I also spent time volunteering at Best Friends Animal Shelter a no kill animal shelter in west LA. It’s an amazing place full of super adorable furry friends waiting for their forever homes. One of them, Karl found his way home to my place and we’ve been enjoying each other’s company ever since I adopted him in March. Frida (my dog) and I think he’s a great addition to our family. He loves to snuggle on the couch:

In addition to working events at Mount Wilson Observatory, I also worked with an incredibly talented group of Technical Volunteers to manage and maintain the observatory, ranging from projects such as servicing the telescope gearing and dome rotation system on the 100in telescope to updating our network infrastructure, we’ve been busy this year! Our group was also tasked with leading our Engineering Tours, of which I was lucky enough to have led 3 of them. These tours gave attendees a behind-the-scenes look of how the observatory works from current operation of the historic Snow Solar Telescope (the first on the mountain), 60in and 100in telescopes to the amazing history of the Machine Shop and Fairbanks Morse engine which was used to generate power at the observatory in the early days. Here’s a pic of myself and this amazing group of Technical Volunteers around the 1911 Fairbanks Morse Engine:

This year I’ve also decided it was time to end my couple year hiatus of astro imaging and have been in the process of updating my astrophotography gear. Here’s a pic of me with my new setup, looking to add more to it in 2026, can’t wait!

The big new additions were a new Player One Zeus 455C a color cooled astro camera, a StellarMate Pro controller and some additional accessories like a ZWO focuser and some other odds and ends. I have plans to upgrade to a dual telescope setup in 2026 to get double the exposure time, for now I’m really enjoying the new setup:

I was lucky enough to have it put together in time to image the last bright comet of 2025 Comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon:

So, with 2025 rapidly coming to a close I look back at how fortunate I’ve been this past year. This year has seen its fair share of terrible developments in our world, so many people have been affected in such horrible ways. I’ve done my best to lend time to causes and support issues I care deeply about. I’m hopeful that 2026 will bring about some much needed changes, hopefully we can start to walk down a different more optimistic, fair, just, and peaceful path.

Looking forward to writing the next update, hopefully less than a year from now 😊

Tom