# Mr. Olcott's Skies:An Old Book and a Youthful Obsession (Memoir)



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

_A passion for star-gazing often starts in a modest way, with a small telescope. For some, that modest beginning becomes a theme that resonates through a lifetime. Mr. Olcott's Skies is the story of one such beginning, and of how a small telescope and an old book set the author on a long and often indirect road to the stars. It's the tale of a journey that has only just begun, and of the discovery that you really do need to look back the way you've come, to understand where you are._

Mr. Olcott's Skies is a brief memoir, of sorts, admittedly written with the niche market of amateur astronomy in mind. It's the tale of my teenage infatuation with the night sky and of experiences my teenaged self enjoyed under the dark rural nights of north central Illinois in the late '60s and early '70s. Most of all it's about misplacing something priceless, then finding it again, and through that finding, better understanding who you once were, and who you are today.

Amateur astronomers will relate because so many of us followed the same path, but others might still find something that rings a bell. After all, we were all young once upon a time, and in our youth found something special that captured our hearts and minds.


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Thomas,

Welcome to the Book Bazaar and congratulations on your book!

KindleBoards is a Kindle fan and reader forum. As you browse KindleBoards, keep in mind that *self-promotion, of any sort, is ONLY allowed in the Book Bazaar*. (You've posted your book thread in the right place; this is just our standard welcome that we place in all book threads. )

A brief recap of our rules follows:

*--Please bookmark this thread (using your browser's bookmark/favorite function) so you can update it as we ask that authors have only one thread per book and add to it when there is more information.* You may start a separate thread for each book (or you may have one thread per series of books, or one thread for all of your books, it's your choice).

--We invite you to use your book cover as your avatar and have links to your book and website in your signature. Instructions are posted here

--While you may respond to member posts to your thread at any time, *you may only bump your thread (back-to-back posts by you) once every seven days*. Once you've responded to a member, that resets the clock to zero and you must wait seven days to post, unless another member posts before then. You may modify the latest post to reflect new information.

--We ask that Amazon reviews not be repeated here as they are easy to find at your book link. Also, full reviews from other sites should not be posted here, but you may post a short blurb and a link to the full review instead.

--Although *self-promotion is limited to the Book Bazaar*, our most successful authors have found the best way to promote their books is to be as active throughout KindleBoards as time allows. This is your target audience--book lovers with Kindles! Please note that putting link information in the body of your posts outside the Book Bazaar constitutes self promotion; please leave your links for your profile signature that will automatically appear on each post. For information on more ways to promote here on KindleBoards, be sure to check out this thread:
Authors: KindleBoards Tips & FAQ.

All this, and more, is included in our Forum Decorum: http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,36.0.html. Be sure to check it from time to time for the current guidelines and rules.

Thanks for being part of KindleBoards! Feel free to send us a PM if you have any questions.

Betsy & Ann
Book Bazaar Moderators


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

In the time since I published this short tale of rediscovery I've discovered a curious thing. For all their fixation on high tech gear for observing the heavens, amateur astronomers have not uniformly adopted the technology that gives us ebooks. So for their sakes, I've also produced a print-on-demand paperback of Mr. Oclott's Skies through CreateSpace. The paperback is available through Amazon for $6.99.

Ebooks are cool, and are the future of reading, no doubt. But there's still room in the world for books on paper. If you enjoyed Mr. Olcott's Sky and want to share it with a non-ebook reader, you can do so!

http://www.amazon.com/Mr-Olcotts-Skies-Youthful-Obsession/dp/1475138687/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1332767379&sr=1-1


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

The observation of double stars played a prominent role in my development as an amateur astronomer, something that is made very plain in the course of Mr. Olcott's Skies. The old telescope described in the story remains fully functional to this day, and has recently been pressed into service yet again as a tool for the observation of double stars.

I am a member of the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association, participating as one of the mentors in their beginners observing program. My particular angle is, you guessed it, double stars. Members of the Astronomy Fundamentals Special Interest Group must observe a list of thirty double stars to complete that part of the program. I selected the objects for that list with component separation in mind, with an eye toward each binary star being within the capabilities of a 60mm refractor. A scope like my Old Scope, in other words. 

To make sure I've chosen wisely, I am now "working" this list myself, using that very same 60mm refractor you meet while reading Mr. Olcott's Skies.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

_"Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin."_ - Barbara Kingsolver.

I've picked up a paper copy of Mr. Olcott's Skies to send to my parents, two people I can pretty much guarantee will never read an ebook. My father, in particular, is eager to read it. He remembers me spending the short Illinois summer nights out under the stars. He would see me head out as he was calling it a day, and be getting up and ready for work when I was hauling myself in at sunrise. It will be interesting to see how the folks react to how I remember the events surrounding that telescope, in that small town, so many years ago. Which of the stories recounted in the book will they remember? And how many will they remember in the same way?


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

I am, of late, being reminded of my "first light" experience with the Old Scope - back when it was brand new. The day I brought the telescope home with me started out clear and sunny but, by the time the sun was low in the west, towering summer thunderstorms had ruined any hope of using that telescope to see the night sky in a new way. I had to wait, and I did so, with all the patience to be expected of a 14 year old boy. Which is, of course, not saying much.

Each summer we experience, in and around Tucson, a period of stormy weather that folk in this region call the Arizona Monsoon. The humidity rises, and each afternoon and evening towering thunderstorms boil up into the sky over the desert. These can be violent storms with wild lightning displays and heavy rains, and whether or not one land right on you is a crap shoot. Needless to say, I don't set up a telescope in a thunderstorm. But these storms don't need to score a direct hit to stop me. As the storms blow themselves out, clouds spread around them. Debris clouds, the meteorologists call them. It's rare, this time of year, to see a clear sky in the evening. And so I wait once more for better weather in which to see the night sky, this time with all the patience of a 56 year old man.

Which still isn't saying much.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

The folks called when the book reached them. (Both books, the novel as well.) They were delighted and excited, and Dad at least started reading Olcott's Skies right away. That was a while ago, and I have not yet received any irate calls regarding a gross misrepresentation of family history. This is encouraging!


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

One of the challenges to writing Mr. Olcott's Skies turned out to be what I should include, and what to leave out. I spent a lot of time under the stars as a teenager, and there are a lot of memories, not all of which were included in the book. For example, the time I almost set fire to myself. I tracked sunspots using a method called 'projection' which as the name implies involves simply letting the image of the sun shine through the eyepiece and fall on a white card held a short distance away. About as safe a way to observe the sun as there is. Just remember to either cover or remove the finder scope, something I failed to do one winter day. From time to time I smelled smoke, and couldn't figure out where it was coming from. I eventually saw the smoke rising from by scorched coat sleeve, which was fortunately fire resistant. The finder scope was doing its own projects, and unfortunately I kept getting close enough for it to act like a magnifying lens and burn the outer shell of the coat. And this, after explaining to the folks how safe this trick would be!


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

I'll be attending CopperCon, a Phoenix (Arizona) area regional sci-fi convention held over the Labor Day weekend. I've seen enough of an overlap between sci-fi fandom and amateur astronomy that I thought I'd let readers of Olcott's Skies in on this. I'll be there Friday and Saturday. I've volunteered for a couple of panel discussions, and requested an opportunity to do a reading, so I should be easy to find if you are there. I'll even have a few POD copies of my novel Luck of Han'anga available to sell. Look for me if you're planning to attend!

http://www.casfs.org/cucon/cu32/index.html


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

Yesterday evening I glimpsed, between towering thunderstorms, a thin and ghostly crescent Moon set on end in a pale blue sky. The storms filtered the light of the setting sun, turning its golden rays a burning orange that set the shoulders of the clouds ablaze. In the midst of this the Moon floated, beyond the reach of Arizona's summer storms.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

I found myself looking up at my old friend from childhood, the other night, remembering moon maps on the bedroom wall and pictures of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo spacecraft. Remembering a grainy image late at night, on an old television set, of a ghostly white, bulky figure slowly climbing down a ladder. I remembered the words spoken, then, announcing to all the world that a thing unprecedented in all of human history had taken place. I remembered it, and remembered the name Neil Armstrong. And then I gave the Moon and that memory a wink.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

The CopperCon experience turned out to be a good one! I didn't sell many books while there, but I began the process of reconnecting with the science fiction fan base that will make up the audience for the majority of the writing I offer for sale. There's a hefty overlap between sci-fi fans and amateur astronomy, which isn't very surprising when you think about it, so I was pleased by the interested they showed Olcott's Skies. A weekend well spent!


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

Yesterday morning I found myself up just before dawn, doing needful things, and looked up into a cloudy sky. The summer rainy season of southern Arizona lingers on, so a sky full of clouds is not a surprise. High in the east, almost overhead, a fat crescent Moon gleamed through a gap in the clouds, turning their edges a soft silver that faded into a dusky gray that never quite faded to dark. These clouds were also lit from below by wasted light of the city. Where the moonlight faded away clouds became first a dirty whitish gray, then pale charcoal in the center. The clouds were flowing steadily out of the south, and so the patterns of silver and white and gray constantly changed with time, until the sun rose and the shades of night were banished by a warm, ruddy glow.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

The mornings are now cool and clear, with the season of summer thunderstorms behind us. I was out just before sunrise under a sky of deepest blue in the west, and very pale, washed out blue in the east. Every shade of blue on the continuum between the horizons blending together without mark or boundary, one into the other, west to east. Pinpricks of light persisted, though most of the stars were lost to the growing daylight. Planets showed up best, with the pearl of Jupiter straight overhead and the diamond brightness of Venus high in the east. Sirius, Rigel, and Aldebaran made themselves known, sparkling a little against a sky like translucent blue crystal. And somewhere nearby, as I looked up, a thrasher sang its dawn song.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

_Excerpt..._

I was taught, at a very young age, the location of the North Star. As long as I could see the North Star, they said, I would know how to find all the other directions. Facing that star, west is left, east is right, and south behind you. This knowledge was imparted with such seriousness and gravity that I assumed getting lost was a common event, a clear and present danger for children especially, and that people learned to find the North Star so they could find a way home. For years afterward I was afraid that if I wandered into the woods to the east of the house, I would need to sit and wait for it to get dark before I could find my way out again. When I was a small boy I suffered from an intense fear of the dark. Waiting alone until it was dark in a scary forest so I could figure out which way was north seemed like a really bad plan. It took me a long time to summon the courage to go and explore those woods.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

_Excerpt_

Summers in the mid 1960s, in that small town, were as close to paradise as I'm likely to ever experience. The long, slow fade of day into evening, and then night, was a magical time - once my fear of the dark was overcome. Thoughts of that period are lit by stars, and by fireflies which we pursued through the grassy fields around us and caught in bottles for a night's amusement. To this day the stars of summer fill me with feelings of freedom. We were free of school cares and daily chores by the time the brightest of those stars twinkled in the evening sky, and because the days of Illinois summers were so long, we were free to stay out and enjoy them well after dinner. Adults would insist it was too dark to see and play at times when we could see just fine, having been out all the while, steadily adapting to the deepening dusk. To parents in the house, their eyes dazzled by the ball game on TV, it must have seemed we had the eyes of cats, to find our way in that seeming darkness. They would come out wishing for a flashlight, only to find us fielding fly balls or catching lightning bugs with our hands. Before we retired for the night I always looked up and traced out those constellations known to me. We were required to release all fireflies the following morning.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

I will be at TusCon 39, this year, right here in Tucson, AZ.

November 9 - 11.

http://www.tusconscificon.com/index.html


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

Clear skies have returned to southern Arizona - for a while.

Time to set up the Old Scope and split some double stars. And maybe take a trip to the Moon, for old times sake!


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

Just before dawn, the stars of winter ride high in a clear Autumn sky. Peaceful and quiet in the pause between night and sunrise.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

Getting ready for TusCon 38.

http://tusconscificon.com/public_html/content/schedule.html


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

TusCon 39 will be held this coming weekend. On Saturday night I will do a reading from my science fiction novel, The Luck of Han'anga.

http://tusconscificon.com/index.html


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

We were all young once upon a time, and discovered things that changed us forever.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

Although his books did not figure into the launching of my interest in amateur astronomy, Patrick Moore's work had an enormous influence on me as a star gazer and a moonwatcher. Today the world of amateur astronomy mourns the passing of one of our grand masters.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20657939


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

Here's a fine little irony. Forty years after giving up on the idea of becoming a professional astronomer, I find myself working for the Steward Observatory at the University of Arizona. I'm not doing any science at all, this being an office job, but I'm there. Who'd've thought?


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

There are moments in life that require no thought while you are in them. You scarcely have time to think. You simply exist and experience them. And then try to remember.

_from_ Mr. Olcott's Skies.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

Sixteen more years would slip away before I came across a copy in my hometown library; there's no telling how long it sat there, or how often - or how little - it was used.

But find it I did, and the power of the written word, bound into a book, to shape at least one aspect of a life was invoked, forty-one years after the words were written . . .

_from Mr. Olcott's Skies_


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

This has promise:

http://earthsky.org/space/big-sun-diving-comet-ison-might-be-spectacular-in-2013

Comets are the one celestial phenomenon that played no real role in the childhood astronomy fixation I describe in Mr. Olcott's Skies. I didn't see my first comet until I was an adult, and that one happened to be Halley's Comet. In that experience, I learned that a comet really can change your life.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

The recent cold spell in Tucson certain brought back memories of setting up a telescope on freezing winter nights. I no longer do that. I've lost my tolerance for cold while living in this subtropical desert land.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

There are sights in the night sky that need no equipment to enjoy. The recent conjunction between the Moon and Jupiter, for example. Things like that, all you need to do is go out and look up.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

Seen on Facebook, and made all the more relevant by today's near miss in Russia: "Asteroids are nature's way of asking, 'How's that space program coming along?'"


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

The Moon wasn't above the horizon for my boyhood home that incredible night, but as soon afterward as I could, I was out gazing at the Sea of Tranquility in amazement and wonder. My father came out that evening, as I sat perched on an old kitchen stool and peered through the eyepiece.

"Can you see the flag?" he asked with a grin, the first - but not the last - time I ever heard that question.

"No," I said simply, knowing he was pulling my leg. "I just had to come out and look."

He was quiet for a long moment, then nodded and said, "Me, too."

I stepped aside and let him have the eyepiece.

From _Mr. Olcott's Skies_


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

Toward the middle of the month (12th and 13th and afterward) look into the sunset for the crescent Moon. Can you find comet Pan-STARRS?

It might put on quite show. And it might not. Only time will tell.

http://www.astronomy.com/~/link.aspx?_id=ac9f90ea-3665-43f8-a596-d6c71b602f54


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

It's ironic that, since launching my indie author career with this short trip down memory lane, I've been too busy getting the writing done to do much star gazing. Somehow, I need to strike a better balance.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

Today marks the first anniversary of the publication of Mr. Olcott's Skies. Two novels and two short stories followed, but it's true that you never forget your first.

http://underdesertstars.wordpress.com/


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

From a Goodreads review:



> Thoroughly enjoyable personal journey through the author's astronomy avocation and life.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

The memories of childhood are often of matters long left behind. If you're lucky, sometimes something survives and waits to be rediscovered.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

A new review on Amazon for Mr. Olcott's Skies-

http://www.amazon.com/review/R33MU6KXJ72C54/ref=cm_cr_dp_title?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1475138687&nodeID=283155&store=books


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

But find it I did, and the power of the written word, bound into a book, to shape at least one aspect of a life was invoked, forty-one years after the words were written . . . 

from Mr. Olcott's Skies


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

Holding on to the things that should be remembered is worth all the trouble.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

Stars like frost on a dark window pane... Fireflies and the summer Milky Way... The Moon in the days of Apollo...

Memories of a childhood under dark, starry skies.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

Reviews so far, for Mr. Olcott's Skies.

Includes proof that you can't please everyone. 

http://www.amazon.com/Mr-Olcotts-Skies-Obsession-ebook/product-reviews/B007N6W6MO/ref=cm_cr_pr_fltrmsg?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

This is the little book that could.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

"Anyone who develops an early interest in anything, and maintains a lifelong interest will identify."


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

Once upon a time, under dark and starry skies.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

A memoir illuminated by starlight.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

Usually heard but not seen. Not the case this night. Even as the wild sound of those invisible geese floated down to me from the moonlit sky, I put my eye back to the eyepiece. In that moment, as I gazed at the familiar face of my old friend, something happened that had not happened before. A skein of geese crossed the face of the Moon. They were there and gone in another moment, but the sight of them marked my memory in an instant with photographic clarity. It was the classic pattern for geese in flight, an elongated V with one arm somewhat longer than the other. Each bird was a silhouette against the Moon, tiny and precise in appearance, the movements of wings quick and determined. I looked up and faced the sky, and heard them honking far above me, fading away to the north. All I could do was stand there looking up, on the ground in a land of farm fields and small houses, as wilderness passed overhead. The Moon seemed farther away, somehow, removed and remote. There are moments in life that require no thought while you are in them. You scarcely have time to think. You simply exist and experience them. And then try to remember.

Mr. Olcott's Skies: An Old Book and a Youthful Obsession


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

One year, on Christmas Eve, they game me the Moon.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

More and more often the Old Scope at the heart of Mr. Olcott's Skies finds its way to dark skies with me. I'm amazed at what that small aperture can reveal, now that I really know how to use it.

There may be another book in that observation.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

“Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin.” - Barbara Kingsolver.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

I will be attending TusCon 40, this coming weekend, November 8, 9, and 10. My novels The Luck of Han'anga and Founders' Effect will be available for sale at the Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore table in the dealer's room.

Check here for the current program: http://tusconscificon.com/

I'm currently scheduled to participate in the following:

Has Future Shock Turned Into Future Fatigue?
Sat.9am Ballroom

Mass Autograph Session Sat.
4pm Ballroom

Good Twists and Bad Twists: What are the keys to making plot twists unpredictable but still believable?
10pm Panel Room 1

How to Rewrite Right 
Sun. Noon. Ballroom

If you're in town, check it out!


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

About to take a new look at double stars through the Old Scope.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

I wonder what I might have seen through that old telescope, back when it was new, if I'd known then what I know now.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

The tiny, fuzzy image of Saturn, seen through that small department store telescope, was more than enough to fire my imagination.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

I grew older. The stars changed not at all.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

"Anyone who develops an early interest in anything, and maintains a lifelong interest will identify." From an Amazon review for Mr. Olcott's Skies: An Old Book and a Youthful Obsession.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

"More than anything, this book reminded me of my own youthful obsession, which made this old obsession even more fun." From a review of Mr. Olcott's Skies.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

If I'd known then what I know now, I'd have stayed up later!


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

The Moon wasn't above the horizon for my boyhood home that incredible night, but as soon afterward as I could, I was out gazing at the Sea of Tranquility in amazement and wonder. My father came out that evening, as I sat perched on an old kitchen stool and peered through the eyepiece.

"Can you see the flag?" he asked with a grin, the first -- but not the last -- time I ever heard that question.

"No," I said simply, knowing he was pulling my leg. "I just had to come out and look."

He was quiet for a long moment, then nodded and said, "Me, too."

I stepped aside and let him have the eyepiece.

From Mr. Olcott's Skies: An Old Book and a Youthful Obsession


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

The Little Book That Could.

https://underdesertstars.wordpress.com/2014/11/26/the-little-book-that-could/


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

If I'd known then what I know now, what might I have seen? The amount of knowledge you bring to amateur astronomy is more important, in the long run, than the size of the telescope.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

It's all right here...

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Watson/e/B007WUAR4A/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

A memoir.

A passion for star-gazing often starts in a modest way, with a small telescope. For some, that modest beginning becomes a theme that resonates through a lifetime. Mr. Olcott's Skies is the story of one such beginning, and of how a small telescope and an old book set the author on a long and often indirect road to the stars. It's the tale of a journey that has only just begun, and of the discovery that you really do need to look back the way you've come, to understand where you are.

http://www.amazon.com/Mr-Olcotts-Skies-Obsession-ebook/dp/B007N6W6MO/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332767379&sr=1-1#_


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

"Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin." - Barbara Kingsolver.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

If I'd known then what I know now, what might I have seen? The amount of knowledge you bring to amateur astronomy is more important, in the long run, than the size of the telescope.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

FREE Kindle ebook on Mother's Day, May 8th.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

FREE

There are moments in life that require no thought while you are in them. You scarcely have time to think. You simply exist and experience them. And then try to remember.

from Mr. Olcott's Skies - An Old Book and a Youthful Obsession

Available as a free download Monday, July 25th, for no particular reason. 

Also available to Kindle Unlimited subscribers.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

FREE this weekend, August 27th and 28th

We were all young, once upon a time, and discovered wonders that changed us forever.

(Always free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers. Please click cover image below.)


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

"Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin." - Barbara Kingsolver.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

On sale today only for just $0.99!


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

This title is now available to Kindle Unlimited subscribers.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

"There are moments in life that require no thought while you are in them. You scarcely have time to think. You simply exist and experience them. And then try to remember."


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

5/13/17

Today only!

Available FREE from Amazon!


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

We were all young, once upon a time, and discovered wonders that changed us forever.

Available through Kindle Unlimited.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

The Moon wasn't above the horizon for my boyhood home that incredible night, but as soon afterward as I could, I was out gazing at the Sea of Tranquility in amazement and wonder. My father came out that evening, as I sat perched on an old kitchen stool and peered through the eyepiece.

"Can you see the flag?" he asked with a grin, the first -- but not the last -- time I ever heard that question.

"No," I said simply, knowing he was pulling my leg. "I just had to come out and look."

He was quiet for a long moment, then nodded and said, "Me, too."

I stepped aside and let him have the eyepiece.

From _Mr. Olcott's Skies: An Old Book and a Youthful Obsession_


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

"There are moments in life that require no thought while you are in them. You scarcely have time to think. You simply exist and experience them. And then try to remember."


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

Excerpt...

I was taught, at a very young age, the location of the North Star. As long as I could see the North Star, they said, I would know how to find all the other directions. Facing that star, west is left, east is right, and south behind you. This knowledge was imparted with such seriousness and gravity that I assumed getting lost was a common event, a clear and present danger for children especially, and that people learned to find the North Star so they could find a way home. For years afterward I was afraid that if I wandered into the woods to the east of the house, I would need to sit and wait for it to get dark before I could find my way out again. When I was a small boy I suffered from an intense fear of the dark. Waiting alone until it was dark in a scary forest so I could figure out which way was north seemed like a really bad plan. It took me a long time to summon the courage to go and explore those woods.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

We were all young, once upon a time, and discovered wonders that changed us forever.


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

The Moon wasn't above the horizon for my boyhood home that incredible night, but as soon afterward as I could, I was out gazing at the Sea of Tranquility in amazement and wonder. My father came out that evening, as I sat perched on an old kitchen stool and peered through the eyepiece.

"Can you see the flag?" he asked with a grin, the first -- but not the last -- time I ever heard that question.

"No," I said simply, knowing he was pulling my leg. "I just had to come out and look."

He was quiet for a long moment, then nodded and said, "Me, too."

I stepped aside and let him have the eyepiece.

From Mr. Olcott's Skies: An Old Book and a Youthful Obsession


----------



## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

There are moments in life that require no thought while you are in them. You scarcely have time to think. You simply exist and experience them. And then try to remember.


----------

