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