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Beautiful story of parents passing down inspiration to their child. Don't forget it is social capital that will always be the greatest inheritance.

craftyguy 9y ago
As a fellow self-taught astronomer, I would have appreciated less of the 'story telling' and more of the details. None of my parents are much interested in astronomy, but I am. If all astronomers only had parents interested in astronomy, then astronomy would have died centuries ago. I don't really care if his/her's dog's neighbor's boyfriend's aunt did XYZ that was tangentially related. Alas, that type of mush 'sells' page views.
- pvg 9y ago
  You can find the letter submitted to Nature quite easily. The story is terrific and will follow you there as well, though. He's listed as a co-author along with his affiliation - his rooftop rig, the Observatorio Astronómico Busoniano. If that doesn't give you the warm fuzzies, having a supernova go off in your living room probably won't either.
- fragmede 9y ago
  It's entirely possible that you're neurotypical but you may want to get checked out for ASD.
  - anticnstrctv 9y ago
    If you think you can divine such a diagnosis from a one paragraph comment on a forum explicitly populated by tech nerds that might want to read about gritty technical details via the kind of intellectual curiosity that is in no way unneurotypical, you might want to get checked out for narcissistic personality disorder.
    - dang 9y ago
      Please don't reply to a bad comment with another bad comment. That just makes the thread worse. Instead, if you have karma > 30, flag the comment as described at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html.
  - dang 9y ago
    This crosses into personal attack, or is at least unduly personal in a way that breaks HN's guidelines. Please read those and follow them when commenting here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
whatshisface 9y ago
>The moment he saw the brilliant light captured by his camera, “it all clicked” for Victor Buso: All the times his parents woke him before sunrise to gaze at the stars, all the energy he had poured into constructing an observatory atop his home, all the hours he had spent trying to parse meaning from the dim glow of distant suns. It sounds to me that the sweat capital this guy poured in dwarfs by far the "social capital" of inspiration that the rest of us could have (and often) got from watching PBS shows.
- jxramos 9y ago
  It likely did, but that's why its even more remarkable, for social capital has a multiplying effect. Every parent wishes their child to surpass them in the end. All of this makes me think of that Created Equal episode of Milton Friedman's Free to Choose, https://youtu.be/YRLAKD-Vuvk?t=650 https://youtu.be/YRLAKD-Vuvk?t=650 as well as the talk about family inheritance https://youtu.be/hoFdVuqrMZw?t=3928 https://youtu.be/hoFdVuqrMZw?t=3928

craftyguy 9y ago

As a fellow self-taught astronomer, I would have appreciated less of the 'story telling' and more of the details. None of my parents are much interested in astronomy, but I am. If all astronomers only had parents interested in astronomy, then astronomy would have died centuries ago. I don't really care if his/her's dog's neighbor's boyfriend's aunt did XYZ that was tangentially related. Alas, that type of mush 'sells' page views.

pvg 9y ago
You can find the letter submitted to Nature quite easily. The story is terrific and will follow you there as well, though. He's listed as a co-author along with his affiliation - his rooftop rig, the Observatorio Astronómico Busoniano. If that doesn't give you the warm fuzzies, having a supernova go off in your living room probably won't either.
fragmede 9y ago
It's entirely possible that you're neurotypical but you may want to get checked out for ASD.
- anticnstrctv 9y ago
  If you think you can divine such a diagnosis from a one paragraph comment on a forum explicitly populated by tech nerds that might want to read about gritty technical details via the kind of intellectual curiosity that is in no way unneurotypical, you might want to get checked out for narcissistic personality disorder.
  - dang 9y ago
    Please don't reply to a bad comment with another bad comment. That just makes the thread worse. Instead, if you have karma > 30, flag the comment as described at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html.
- dang 9y ago
  This crosses into personal attack, or is at least unduly personal in a way that breaks HN's guidelines. Please read those and follow them when commenting here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

whatshisface 9y ago

>The moment he saw the brilliant light captured by his camera, “it all clicked” for Victor Buso: All the times his parents woke him before sunrise to gaze at the stars, all the energy he had poured into constructing an observatory atop his home, all the hours he had spent trying to parse meaning from the dim glow of distant suns. It sounds to me that the sweat capital this guy poured in dwarfs by far the "social capital" of inspiration that the rest of us could have (and often) got from watching PBS shows.

jxramos 9y ago
It likely did, but that's why its even more remarkable, for social capital has a multiplying effect. Every parent wishes their child to surpass them in the end. All of this makes me think of that Created Equal episode of Milton Friedman's Free to Choose, https://youtu.be/YRLAKD-Vuvk?t=650 https://youtu.be/YRLAKD-Vuvk?t=650 as well as the talk about family inheritance https://youtu.be/hoFdVuqrMZw?t=3928 https://youtu.be/hoFdVuqrMZw?t=3928