History/CoL

Lon Blume

Lon joined the Pocatello Astronomical Society in 2018 and later joined the Astronomical League when the rest of the club joined in 2021. Club members first met Lon at a star party hosted by the Idaho Museum of Natural History. The star party ended up being a bust due to high winds and a rain storm coming through. The best part of the party was meeting Lon. He had an interest in taking astronomical pictutures and asked club members if there was anyone who knew how to take such pictures. Mike Beer introduced Lon to John Reed and he showed some of the work that he had done. Lon became super excited and asked about details of the club and how to join. He asked John if he could learn how to take such photos. John Reed became good friends with Lon. They spent many days talking about astronomy and how to take deep sky astronomy pictures like galaxies, and nebulae. John invited Lon to come to his place and show him how to setup NINA software. They worked on taking images of the Andromada Galaxy and Veil Nebula. Lon took good notes and asked John several questions. This is one of the images that Lon and John captured with his Aptura 90mm and I-optron HEM44 mount just around October 2023 of the Andromeda Galaxy.

Lon attended most of the star parties while a member except in the winter. He told club members that November through February it was too cold to be outside and he will join again in March when it starts warming up again. He would still attend the astronomy meetings in the winter. One of Lon’s favoriate places to attend star parties was Craters of the Moon National Monument and Perserve. The Pocatello Astronomical Society volunteers to show the night sky at Craters of the Moon twice a year, once in June and another in September around the new moon. Lon attended most of the star parties at Craters of the Moon when he joined the club. Lon made many friends in the club. Kasey Davis and Lon would swap war stories while looking at open star clusters through Lon’s Fuginon Binoculars. Doug Burnquist and Lon would swap stories about their truck driving jobs they had. We will miss our good friend Lon Blume. He will always be remembered.