Richard Handy

My name is Richard Handy, I'm 51 years old and have been an avid amateur astronomer since the age of 8, when I my father bought me a 2" Gilbert reflecting telescope.
I ground and polished a 6" mirror in high school and did observations and sketches of the Planet Mars during the 1971-72 opposition and was awarded the NASA Astronomy award for my efforts.
I studied Astrophysics and Art at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
I've always had aperature fever and now own a 20" Starsplitter II, 16" Meade reflector, 12" Meade GPS on a Paramount GT1100 and a Meade 14" GPS on a Paramount ME atop a pier in my patio observatory. I have two SBIG CCD cameras, the ST10XME and the ST2000XM both with attached color wheels.
I've always been attracted to lunar sketching because it combines two of my favorite pass times.
In the past 3-4 years I've developed a white chalk (Conte' Crayon) on black paper sketching technique that allows very rapid drawing of lunar features.
I've only recently been trying this technique on lunar domes and hope to have greater success in the future with these elusive and intriguing targets.

I am fascinated with the geophysical and topological study of the lunar surface and my interest has lead me to meet and collaborate with fellow GLR member Rick Evans who produces lunar elevation maps of features from SFS software and Mardi Clark whose interest in lunar geology has been a source of continued inspiration for my studies. I'm also working on a collaborative imaging project that is using long baseline parallax to produce 3D anagylphs of highly magnified lunar features.
Currently I'm co-authoring a book on astronomical sketching technique for a major international publisher for release sometime this year. I am self employed, running an internet astronomical business whose main product are
light boxes for producing flat field frames in conjunction with CCD imaging.

		My name is Richard Handy, I'm 51 years old and have been an avid amateur astronomer since the age of 8, when I my father bought me a 2" Gilbert reflecting telescope. I ground and polished a 6" mirror in high school and did observations and sketches of the Planet Mars during the 1971-72 opposition and was awarded the NASA Astronomy award for my efforts. I studied Astrophysics and Art at the University of California, Santa Cruz. I've always had aperature fever and now own a 20" Starsplitter II, 16" Meade reflector, 12" Meade GPS on a Paramount GT1100 and a Meade 14" GPS on a Paramount ME atop a pier in my patio observatory. I have two SBIG CCD cameras, the ST10XME and the ST2000XM both with attached color wheels. I've always been attracted to lunar sketching because it combines two of my favorite pass times. In the past 3-4 years I've developed a white chalk (Conte' Crayon) on black paper sketching technique that allows very rapid drawing of lunar features. I've only recently been trying this technique on lunar domes and hope to have greater success in the future with these elusive and intriguing targets. I am fascinated with the geophysical and topological study of the lunar surface and my interest has lead me to meet and collaborate with fellow GLR member Rick Evans who produces lunar elevation maps of features from SFS software and Mardi Clark whose interest in lunar geology has been a source of continued inspiration for my studies. I'm also working on a collaborative imaging project that is using long baseline parallax to produce 3D anagylphs of highly magnified lunar features. Currently I'm co-authoring a book on astronomical sketching technique for a major international publisher for release sometime this year. I am self employed, running an internet astronomical business whose main product are light boxes for producing flat field frames in conjunction with CCD imaging.
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