Personal Stories
Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue15 1–30 April 2021
I’m the middle of five children, born in Texas. At the age of 8, my family moved to the Western Slope of Colorado, where nothing happens outside of ranching and mining. Western Colorado is also home to the largest and best-preserved Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites in the United States, the most famous of which are the magical cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde.
My parents knew I was predisposed to be an astronomer from the time I started to talk because my questions were endless: `why are only some stars shooting stars?’ or `why is the Moon sometimes up in the daytime?’. My parents ensured I had every opportunity to engage with my scientific interests, which included a trip to the Cosmosphere in Kansas, the largest collection of US and Russian spaceflight in the world, and a trip to Cape Canaveral in Florida to see the launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour in June 1993 (STS-57). Due to bad weather at the pre-determined emergency landing site, the launch of Endeavor was delayed. At the time, my siblings and I were excited because this meant we were able to spend extra time at the pool.
After high school I obtained my Bachelor from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a PhD in astronomy at the University of Massachusetts, where I investigated the structure and lifetimes of star-forming complexes in nearby spiral galaxies. After I made the decision to go to graduate school, I was given the (bad) advice of ‘marry your office mate as they are the only person you’ll be friends with for the next half decade of your life’. At the time I laughed, but little did I know it would end up coming true. After we completed our PhDs, we relocated to Canberra to start our postdoctoral positions at Mt Stromlo. The near daily sighting of kangaroos makes Canberra the single greatest city in the world.
I have two hobbies, space and astronomy-themed postage stamp collecting and quilling, an art form that involves the use of strips of paper that are rolled, shaped, and glued together to create decorative designs. Both hobbies are extremely relaxing, visually pleasing and do not require outdoor activity, thus making them very enjoyable. I love showing off my stamp collection, which has become very expansive over the last few years, as well as my quilling projects. Feel free to ask if you want to pursue my collections!
My ultimate love in life and the single thing that drives the itinerary for every single trip, vacation, and country we visit, are castles. We got engaged (Schoenbrunn Palace, Vienna Austria), married (Beardslee Castle, Little Falls USA), and honeymooned (Pena Palace, Sintra Portugal) at castles. The more castles I visit, the more I experience wanderlust – the desire to travel and explore the world. I’m anxiously awaiting the return of international travel so I can resume my worldly castle explorations again!
Katie Grasha
