A DESCENDANT of a Russian Tsar’s court astronomer continues the family tradition in his Swindon back garden.

Peter Struve, 57, is founder and chairman of Swindon Stargazers, a thriving group of local astronomers whose website is used as a teaching resource in schools as distant as California and Ohio.

On the home page he writes: “Buried deep within the psyche of mankind is a desire to reach out and touch the heavens. To seek knowledge and understanding of whom and what we are, of where we are going and from where we have come.

“It is the voice from deep within and its name is CURIOSITY. It drives us forward on an unending journey of discovery to explore and experience this amazing universe of which we are truly a part.”

Peter has been a devoted astronomer since he was eight years old. “My grandparents bought me a telescope for my birthday,” he said. “A little one. I took it out in the garden. We lived in London – there was a lot less light pollution then.”

The boy looked into the eyepiece and Saturn swam out of the blackness to greet him. “It was amazing. It was a revelation because I could make out the rings. That got me hooked; the feelings of total amazement and elation.”

Peter wasn’t the first person in his family to cast his eyes to the heavens; he comes from a dynasty of astronomers. One ancestor, Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve, was ennobled by Tsar Nicholas I of Russia.

Another relative, Otto Struve, spent most of his career in America, where he founded the huge McDonald Observatory in Texas and was director of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in West Virginia.

Peter read every astronomy book he could lay his hands on after that first sight of Saturn, and at 14 was given a much bigger telescope with a four-inch lens. These days he uses an even more powerful one.

“I have been fortunate to have been born in a period covering most of the space race, from Sputnik to the Shuttle and Curiosity,” he said.

Watching the Apollo 11 Moon landing on a flickering black and white television in 1969 is a cherished memory. Peter pursued his passion through a career as an RAF air frame technician, a stint as a gravedigger and years working as an archaeological excavator for Cotswold Archaeological Trust.

He is now medically retired. In 1986 he graduated from the Open University with a general science degree including physics, nuclear physics, Quantum theory, chemistry, biology and earth sciences.

He lives in Park South with wife Carol, a special needs teaching assistant, and the couple have four children and two grandchildren.

Peter founded Swindon Stargazers in 2009. The group welcomes new members whether they’re long-term enthusiasts, novices or people who simply want to come and look through a telescope and decide whether the hobby is for them.

The newcomer can get started with a simple pair of binoculars for £20 or £30, although a powerful set of astronomer’s binoculars can be had for as little as £60. Novices can then decide whether they want to make the leap into the more expensive world of telescopes.

On no account should they buy a cheap telescope, however. “The cheapest telescopes are worse than useless – just grab the thing out of the box and throw it in the bin.”

Even worse, the disappointing results of buying a cheap telescope can put people off the hobby altogether, which is something Swindon Stargazers would regard as a tragedy.

As Peter writes on the homepage: “For every fibre of our being, every molecule, every atom where forged in the furnace of every star that shines in the velvet blackness of a darkened sky. Come join us on our journey.”

The website is at www.swindonstargazers.com