A Gift That Turned Her into an Astronomer: Pete & Juliette’s Dwarf 3 Story
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Tempo di lettura 2 min
Our Quote
At DwarfLab, our mission has always been to turn the wonder of the night sky into something accessible—for lifelong astronomy enthusiasts, curious beginners, and everyone eager to share that magic with loved ones. Pete and Juliette’s story, rooted in a childhood passion for stargazing and now rekindled through the Dwarf 3, is exactly why we build smart telescopes: to bridge the gap between tradition and innovation, and to create moments that bind people (and even binary stars!) together under the cosmos. We're honored to be part of their journey—and can’t wait to hear about the day they capture Nu CETI with their Dwarf 3.
I have always love stars and astronomy. One of the first books I received for a birthday was The Atlas of the Universe by the famous British astronomer (Sir) Patrick Moore. He was a hero to me growing up in England but where we lived there was no sky at night due to city lights and pollution.
When I was ten years old we moved from England to a relatively small town in New Zealand (that was 1971!).
The skies were clear and the night sky was glorious!
As a young teenager I joined the local Astronomy Club. I was by far the youngest member. When I joined the club members embarked on a project and we each built 4 inch reflecting telescopes from cheap materials such as plastic irrigation pipes. We ground the mirrors by hand from two, round, glass blanks using ever finer grades of powder on home-made mounts. It took weeks and weeks of grinding during spare time then we had the silver coating applied at a local mirror factory.
I made a mount from a beer crate and spare bits of wood and was gifted an eye-piece by a club member and it worked! I spent hours and hours outside at night finding stars and planets using my little atlas book as a guide. It was very basic but it worked and I loved showing my parents the wonders of the night sky through my home-made telescope.
Many years later, only recently, I wanted to return to that love of the stars but I also wanted to share it with my wife. So when I came across the Dwarf 3 during my research for a 'smart' telescope I was thrilled! Here was something that didn't look like a traditional telescope, was packed with smart features like a built-in atlas and it was small and portable so we could take it on holiday to places away from bright city lights. So I purchased it for her as a birthday gift. She was surprised and excited and has adopted it as a treasured gift.
She is now, officially, an astronomer! Now, together, we can share my boyhood love of the stars.
I also adopted a star from our local Observatory as a gift for my wife Juliette - Nu CETI (HIP 12093). A binary star representing the two of us bound together. When the conditions a right we will point our Dwarf 3 to it and capture it as a loving memory.
