An Astronomers Journey: My Path to the Stars
Hey there, I’m Luke! I’m so glad you’re here on About Boulder reading about my journey. As someone with a degree in astrophysics from CU and over 13 years of experience in educational astronomy, I’ve been running AstroTours.org for over seven years now, sharing the wonders of the night sky with people like you.
I was born in Denver, Colorado, and the Rocky Mountains’ skies have amazed me my entire life. One of my father’s favorite stories from my infancy is when he took me outside on a full moon night. I pointed up at the moon and said, “Ball.” He chuckled and said, “Very good, Luke! That is a ball—we call that ball the Moon!” I looked back up and exclaimed, “MOOOOOOOOOON!” A while later, when I hadn’t seen the moon in some time, I went to my father distressed, saying, “MOOOON gone gone,” with a gesture that usually meant I was looking for something. He laughed and made sure to show me the moon again when it reappeared.
Throughout my life, I’ve owned a good few telescopes, but my favorite is still the one my grandfather gave me in middle school—a 4-inch Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope. It’s incredibly portable, and I’ve taken it everywhere with me. If you join me on one of my tours, I’ll happily show you how to use it and help you learn the sky with it just as I did.
After graduating high school, I took a year to work on a U.S. Forest Service wildland fire hand crew. This opportunity allowed me to travel to remote places all over the United States and sleep under some of the darkest skies imaginable. The next fire season, I was offered a job as a fire lookout, stationed on a mountain outside of Lake Tahoe with large binoculars. I used them to spot fires during the day and explore the night skies after sunset.
The Big Hill Lookout tower I lived and worked in
I went on to study physics at the University of Colorado. A visit to Volcanoes National Park and the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii inspired me to add astrophysics and geophysics to my degree. While studying, I worked a few odd jobs, including spending a summer on a commercial tuna fishing vessel off the coast of Oregon. This work was dependent on the tides, so I became very familiar with the phases of the moon.
During the school year, I volunteered at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, running telescopes for solar observing and special events. I also joined a club that met weekly to learn how to use the planetarium and develop content for its shows. In 2016, I graduated with a major in physics and minors in astrophysics and geophysics. I completed an independent study in quasar research and a senior project on using magnetism to launch payloads into space.
After graduation, I went to Australia on a work visa and took on various jobs around the continent. My two favorite roles were as a tour guide for “Space Gandalf” at Astro Tours Broome and as an astronomer at the Gravity Discovery Centre in Perth, Western Australia. Both jobs required me to showcase the wonders of the night sky to tour groups, and I absolutely loved sharing my passion with others.
When my visa expired and I had to return to America, I searched all over for a similar job here in Colorado. I quickly realized that nothing quite like it existed, which led me to create AstroTours! I’m incredibly excited to see what comes next and what this business will teach me.
I look forward to seeing you on one of my tours and tell you what to look for in the night sky in my weekly article here! Together, we’ll explore the cosmos and uncover the secrets of the universe.
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