Russ, a Plantsville resident and retired manufacturing engineer,  is an active member of the Litchfield Hills Amateur Astronomy Club. His interest in space and astronomy started in the early 1960s with the Project Mercury Space Program. He got his first telescope over 50 years ago and has been looking to the night skies ever since. 

He is involved in many public outreach programs at the White Memorial Conservation Center in Litchfield, where he hosted an Eclipse Party that had over 1000 people in attendance. He is also a volunteer astronomer at Acadia National Park in Maine. He recently completed the design and build of a very large F/15 Refracting telescope that has received accolades from fellow amateur astronomers as far away as France and Australia. 

He will be bringing two large computer controlled Schmidt Cassegrain telescopes to the Stargazing Party at the Library along with some smaller manually controlled scopes.