Charlie Stetz came of age at the height of the Space Race. Like so many other kids of his generation, the possibilities of the Apollo missions of the 1960s transfixed him.

Often, at night, he would lie in the yard of his home in the Heights section of Wilkes-Barre, staring at the craters of the moon through the lens of his 40-milimeter sporting goods-store telescope.

It made him wonder about our place in the universe, the infinite possibilities.

All these years later, he still wonders, still searches. Only now, Stetzs toys are a bit more advanced.

Last year, the 69-year-old fulfilled a longtime goal of building an enclosed observatory on his Waverly Township, Lackawanna County, property, replacing an open-air deck Stetz constantly schlepped his equipment to and from.

It was a dream to have this. Its nice to finely get it, Stetz said as he gave a tour of the observatory on a recent day. My wife is the one who gave me the kick in the pants to do it. She was like, What are you waiting for?

Built for about $8,000, the 12-by-12-foot wood and siding structure has a metal roof that manually slides on wheels until it reveals the heavens above. The walls are high enough to keep out nearby light.

A 19-year-old Astro-Physics 6-inch refractor telescope takes up permanent space in the observatory theres no heat, but there is electricity and allows Stetz to see countless amazing things, from the red spot on Jupiter to the rings of Saturn to the Andromeda Galaxy millions of light years away. The telescope, which also cost about $8,000, connects to a computer that helps Stetz with coordinates and positioning, and to a Canon T2i camera that allows him to indulge his love of astrophotography.

Childhood fascination

Stetz was in his mid-teens when he bought his first telescope from a sporting goods store in Wilkes-Barre. It was still a few years from Neil Armstrongs walk on the moon, but the vast potential of space travel lit up his young mind.

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Area mans home observatory indulges his longtime fascination with space