For over 40 years, Peter Michaud has dedicated his life to astronomy education—most notably leading the Education and Engagement group at the Gemini Observatory (NOIRLab) atop Maunakea in Hawai‘i. A lifelong stargazer, telescope maker, and night sky advocate, Peter has helped countless people discover the wonder of the cosmos.

Now in his mid-60s and still active in the astronomy community, Peter lives in Hilo on Hawai‘i’s Big Island, where the skies are just as pristine as his passion for the stars. Since his teenage years grinding mirrors for homemade telescopes, he’s built dozens of instruments—his largest a 12.5” f/6—and even experimented with astrophotography back in the days of hypersensitized Kodak film and darkrooms.

Though deeply hands-on, Peter admits he was once skeptical of “goto” telescopes. “If you don’t know the sky,” he’d say, “you have no business exploring its wonders.” That old-school mindset stayed with him—until the Seestar S30 came along.

Introduced to it by fellow enthusiast P.K. Chen, Peter gave the Seestar a try under Hawai‘i’s legendary skies. Within minutes, he was imaging M51—the Whirlpool Galaxy—and watching spiral arms appear on his screen. “I was gobsmacked,” he says. While larger telescopes nearby struggled, the compact Seestar captured detail with surprising clarity.

He was hooked.

For Peter, the Seestar didn’t replace the joy of observing—it expanded it. He now images with the S30 while using his handmade telescopes side by side. “It complements the experience,” he says. “It adds a new dimension to the joy of being under the stars.”

The experience even reignited his love for telescope building. He’s currently working on a series of refractors, including a 140mm f/6.5 APO system. “I think a ZWO mount and camera might be in my future,” he laughs.

After decades of supporting professional observatory imaging, Peter is now capturing the sky for himself—from a quiet site on Maunaloa. Using tools like Siril and Lightroom, he’s amazed by how accessible astrophotography has become. “You can remove stars from an image with one click—it’s wild,” he says.

Looking back, Peter calls the Seestar “a magical little device” that’s helping people all over the world reconnect with the night sky. “It reminded me why I fell in love with astronomy in the first place,” he says. “And now it’s doing the same for thousands of others.”