"Growing up, I was one of those guys who wanted to be a rock star," says Michael Koppelman. Shortly after he graduated from Boston's Berklee College of Music in 1988, the soft-spoken, hard-rocking Koppelman began a ten-year pursuit of his dream ― working in recording studios with artists such as Prince and Booker T. and the MGs. But his life took an unexpected turn when his girlfriend gave him a telescope for his birthday a few years ago. "I got the bug real bad," he says. He began by imaging stars and galaxies, but gradually became interested in stars whose brightness changes over time. To monitor such 'variable stars' precisely required advanced equipment and expertise that Koppelman didn't have, so he began cruising Internet chat rooms, talking to others who were interested in doing more than just taking pictures of galaxies and planets. They were a motley bunch ― from dotcom entrepreneurs to construction-equipment salesmen ― whose passion for astronomy drove them to spend thousands of dollars on telescopes and cameras.
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