Hello Friend,

                      It was a bloody cold day, back in Clear Lake, Iowa on February 3rd 1959.

And, according to the famous song, "American Pie",by singer Don Mclean, that was the day the music died.
(Or more figuratively, the innocence of rock n roll)

    Had I not ended up in the telescope business, I may have ended up in the music business instead.

  Yes, really!

When I was 15, I got My first electric guitar was a Vantage brand,  and it was cherry red, but had the absolute worse action
on it, but I learned how to play it. 

Today my pride and joy is a Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster, also in Cherry red.  What a difference!

         Back to Clear Lake, Iowa 1959.  Buddy Holly,  ("Peggy Sue") the Big Bopper ( aka JP Richardson)( "Chantilly Lace" )and
a very young Ritchie Valens ("La Bamba") were tired of freezing their asses off in a tour bus that had no heat.
Heck, one of the band members, even had frostbite, and and had to be hospitalized. 

That's how bad it was.

         So, the three rock n' rollers, chartered a small plane for the princely sum back then, of $36 each, to fly them to their
next gig.  

Sadly, they never made it.    The Plane crashed (bad weather, and pilot inexperience were to blame).  All 3 died.

    And that was certainly a tragedy.  What's remarkable is that Buddy Holly was only 22 years, but he already had
a legacy and large body of music that he left behind that lives on today.

     Clear Skies,

    
     Ray "rock n roll" Khan

  PS  We've got a "rock n roll" deal on a New Ioptron Skyguider equatorial mount right here, that you won't want to miss
         which is ideal for Imaging with your Digital SLR. Includes Cases for travelling, and taking on an airplane.