Arturo Gomez
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by Arturo Gomez
I was born in Rengo, Chile, a little town near
Santiago. In this agricultural region that is free
of light pollution, I remember first seeing the
Milky Way at the age of six. In that moment I became
married to space and the stars. I even made my first
telescope when I was 7 or 8 years old with a little
eyepiece and a pair of my father's optical glasses
(borrowed from him while he slept)! In 1958, while
on ‘expedition’ with a group of Boy Scouts
walking in the Andes mountains, I saw my first total
solar eclipse in 1958. The birds and animals went
crazy from the temporary lack of daylight.
My first job in astronomy was at the Cerro Calan
Observatory in Santiago. I was there for three years
before coming to Cerro
Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in
La Serena. As an observer for University of Michigan,
I used the Schmidt
telescope and took hundreds and hundreds of
photographic plates in direct and prism mode- a
technique that is now obsolete. I’ve worked
here at CTIO for more than 30 years now as a member
of the "Tololo-Family". My non-astronomy
hobbies include classical and orchestral music (i.e.
Brahms, Mahler, etc.) and photography (Howard Bond
has some of my photographic work). My wife, Patricia
Caorsi, is an orthodontist, and we have three children,
two girls, Pamela and Marcela, and one boy, Daniel.
Two of them already attend Chilean Universities.
I wish to say ‘thanks’ to everyone on
the Heritage team for the wonderful picture of "Gomez
Pre-planetary Nebula,” optically known as "Gomez's
Hamburger." More information on this object
is available at "The
Astrophysical Journal". 316 : L21-L24, 1987
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