41° 17' 16" N  -  84° 22' 26" W

The Beginning...

     My interest in astronomy began when I was 6 years old.  My grandfather, Lathrop F. Berry Sr. proudly showed me a six-inch reflecting telescope he hand-built in the late 1940's.  As  kids, my brother and I could hardly wait to visit Grandpa Berry and always begged him to get the scope out!  He showed us Mars, Jupiter and Saturn and taught us the basics of stargazing.  These exciting outings forty years ago, in Jackson, MI., started me on a very rewarding journey which continues today.

     The photo at right was featured in Scientific American magazine.  He designed and built the scope mount, motor drive assembly, optical tube and even ground his own mirror!  Using two pieces of Pyrex glass, he told us the story of actually walking around a wooden barrel, hour after hour, using progressively finer abrasives between the glass discs.  Eventually, the discs took on a curved shape - the bottom piece became convex and the top concave. The concave piece became the telescope's mirror. After weeks of grinding, polishing and testing the curvature, he ended up with an almost perfect parabolic surface.  Shortly after sending the glass away to Texas to be silvered, he received a letter; His piece of ground glass was the most perfect parabolic shape they had ever seen!  The company silvered the mirror for free.