Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 45

REACHING
FOR THE
STARS
Technology helps make
Rett Walters' celestial
dreams come true
by Jim McCarty | jmccarty@ruralmissouri.coop
H
umans have gazed at the night sky for as long as
they've walked the Earth. But few have gazed at
the stars the way Rett Walters does it. He's got his
own observatory sitting on a hilltop that overlooks
Lake of the Ozarks.
On a chilly winter night he unlocks the latches holding
the observatory's roof on and pushes a button. Slowly the
roof retracts, exposing the star-filled night sky. Orion is
low in the sky but will soon be in range. Mars and Jupiter
stand out in sharp contrast to the background constellations.
Despite the haze of an approaching storm on the
horizon, it's a good night for stargazing.
Rett wakes up the 12-inch Meade telescope and its
onboard computer comes to life. He enters the date and
time and the big scope starts to whine. It looks into its
database of celestial objects and selects two for reference,
effortlessly moving to the proper coordinates. Now it
knows exactly where it's at and awaits Rett's command.
He moves into a heated control room outfitted with no
end of high-tech gear and launches a computer program.
One of the three screens opens to display the sky with all
of the constellations visible at this latitude. He clicks on
the Pleiades, a star cluster located in the constellation
Taurus, and the sound of the telescope readjusting breaks
the stillness. It's networked to the computer inside and
also to a server located nearby in Rett's home.
Rett peers through the viewfinder and the bright star
cluster appears even more impressive than it is through
the naked eye. Another command takes it to the Orion
Nebula, visible as the middle star on Orion's Belt. He
changes the selection to Jupiter and the gas giant pops
into focus with its Galilean satellites - Io, Europa, Ganymede
and Callisto - visible. Now he moves to Mars and
Top: Rett Walters' dream of owning his own observatory became
reality when he built Lozwott Observatory on Lake of the Ozarks.
Left: This photo of the moon is one he has made with his 12-inch
Meade telescope and digital camera.
MARCH 2023 | RURAL MISSOURI 45

Rural Missouri - March 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Rural Missouri - March 2023

Contents
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - Cover1
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - Cover2
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - Contents
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 4
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 5
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 6
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 7
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 8
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 9
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 10
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 11
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 12
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 13
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Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 15
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 16
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 17
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 18
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 19
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 20
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 21
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Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 23
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Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 27
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 28
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Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 30
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 31
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Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 33
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Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 35
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 36
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 37
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 38
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 39
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 40
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 41
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 42
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 43
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 44
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 45
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 46
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 47
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 48
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 49
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 50
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 51
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Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 53
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 54
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - Cover3
Rural Missouri - March 2023 - Cover4
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