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People Who Make San Antonio Great: Astronomer and astrophotographer Robert Reeves

Robert Reeves likes to shoot for the moon, and he has the pictures to prove it.

The moon is an eerie, jagged desert landscape, capture in black and white and shades of gray. Impact craters, mountains, dead volcanoes, and lava flows all dot the terrain floating in space more than 238,000 miles away.

And it’s all consistently captured by the lens of a lunar landscape expert Robert Reeves.

“There aren't people who continually attack the moon like I do,” Reeves said. “The moon is my territory.”

The surface of the moon is his territory because he's been focused on it for nearly 60 years.

"I realized after Sputnik that, in no time, we're gonna be sending rockets to the moon,” he recalled. “And sure enough, in the summer of 1958, the Air Force started trying to send probes to the moon. And that's the year I took my first moon picture."

Reeves grew up in Alamo Heights, served in the U.S. Navy, then went to work as a heavy truck mechanic back home in San Antonio. But his passion has always been among the stars and, specifically, the moon.

"A person who loves the moon, [is] a celenophile,” he explained. Celen, the moon, phile, lover. So celenophile, that's what I call them.”

He’s taken thousands of crystal-clear lunar landscape photos over the years, first with film and now using digital cameras. With no college degree, he could never pursue astronomy as a career, but he’s taught continuing education astronomy classes, and he's a prolific published author with about 250 articles on astrophotography, 200 newspaper columns, and even four books on the subject.

"I like to think that I've trained an entire generation of good astrophotographers,” he said.

Reeves is a lifetime member and past president of the San Antonio Astronomical Association. And Celestron, a telescope company, named one of its smallest telescopes after him. It’s designed for entry-level astronomers. The company did it to recognize Reeves’ work encouraging beginners.

"Everybody looks up to Robert,” said fellow amateur astronomer Dave Street. “As an accomplished astronomer, astrophotographer, and teacher, he's regarded as a real inspiration across the board."

Reeves built a home observatory on the roof of his garage, which now supports a new Celestron 11, given to him at a conference by the company’s president.

“And I mentioned off-hand that getting a Celestron 11 was always on my bucket list, and the next day he sent me an email that said, ‘We're sending you one,” Reeves said proudly. "And he said, ‘Don't think of this as a gift, you've earned it!’”

On a balmy summer night, he climbs up a narrow wooden staircase in his garage up to a wide wooden platform, where the new telescope is pointed skyward. He can control it with a hand-held remote control or locate specific landscapes using a laptop. He’s done it thousands of times. And when the atmosphere's just right, Reeves captures astronomical art.

"And it changes personality as the shadows change,” said Reeves, describing the surface of the moon. “You can go out night after night and it's never exactly the same. There's always something different."

To reach a bigger, modern audience, Reeves recently started a Facebook page.

“On a lark, I decided to do something on Facebook that I call ‘365 Days of the Moon,’” he said. “I post a different picture that I've taken of the moon, every day for a year, with a little write-up about what it is. And that's been going on for four years now."

He has more than 40,000 followers.

And as for the future, Reeves believes that we’ll return to the moon, and that lunar water is the key.

"Water on the moon is the Holy Grail. We need it for when we finally colonize the moon,” he said. “We need it to make rocket fuel, to be able to leave the moon, and move out further into the solar system."

Robert Reeves is the unequivocal King of the Moonscape, known globally for his work. And he's another one of the people who make San Antonio great.

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