Paul C. Lawler
Principal

Personal

Hobbies? Well, several I suppose but mostly amateur astronomy. I like to observe visually and I don't take pictures so a large aperture Dobsonian mounted Newtonian reflector really fits the bill. This one was built by Barry Peckham of Litebox Telescopes.

I am a member of the Hawaiian Astronomical Society. Please feel free to come to any of our star parties.

I actually have four telescopes. The 12.5" Litebox pictured at left, an Orion SkyQuest XT10, a Meade ETX-125 and a Bushnell Voyager (the bowling ball one). I like to look at Deep Sky Objects, and I especially enjoy hunting for planetary nebulae. My newest observing project is the Herschel 400.

My favorite movies ever are Casablanca, It's a Wonderful Life, and The Princess Bride. One of my favorite TV shows is Star Trek, which has come in 4 different flavors since 1966 (which is when I started watching, incidentally). There was the original series (TOS), Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9) and most recently, Star Trek: Voyager (VOY).

I am a pretty avid reader and usually have 3 or 4 books going at once. Some of my favorite authors are Dick Francis, David Eddings & Robert Jordan (although Jordan seems to be just filling pages to make money lately). My all time favorites are J.R.R. Tolkein, whom I consider the undisputed father of the modern "fantasy" genre (okay, so I've read Lord of the Rings 28 times... hasn't everyone?), and C.S. Lewis. Oh, I suppose I shouldn't leave out the Bible, Shakespeare and Kipling, but those are kind of givens, right? Do I read Harry Potter?  Do you need to ask? Although I am a bit unhappy that Scholastic decided to change the title of the first book... I think any semi-literate person should know what a "philosopher's stone" is.

Last "fun" book I read: The Davinci Code. Last "serious" book I read: Seeing in the Dark : How Backyard Stargazers Are Probing Deep Space and Guarding Earth from Interplanetary Peril

My musical taste is kind of eclectic, so I'll have to choose favorites in several genres.

• Classical - Mozart
• Broadway - The Secret Garden, Camelot
• Female vocalists - Karen Carpenter, Karla Bonoff, Linda Ronstat
• Male vocalists - Mandy Patinkin, Gordon Lightfoot , Dan Fogelberg
• Rock - Cranberries (are they really rock? Maybe not)
• New Age - Enya, Ray Lynch
• Japanese - Akai Tori, Itsuwa Mayumi.

I am somewhat of a Nipponophile (don't ask... look it up!), because I lived in Japan for two years, so of course I have a couple of Tamagotchi (okay, okay... I have all 6 of them, plus an Angelgotchi, so what's your point!?), but i don't seriously collect anything! "��{��Řb���܂��傤�A�l�B (If the preceding looks like gibberish, don't worry, you just can't read Japanese characters on your computer)!

I have a cockatiel named Charlie (we found out that he's a she when the eggs came), who is molting and obnoxious, and a goldfish named Tiger (Fred & Barney died... *sniff*), who can't fly, but at least he's quiet!

This blue ribbon indicates that I advocate first amendment rights on the Internet. I may hate what you have to say, but I'll defend your right to say it.