Trevor Barry
A peek into a friend’s backyard telescope not only ignited Trevor Barry’s passion and fascination with astronomy; it also marked the beginning of this amateur astronomer’s journey from working in the Broken Hill mines to graduating with top honours in astronomy at Swinburne and, now, working with NASA.
After that unforgettable first glimpse through his friend’s telescope, Trevor enrolled in Swinburne’s Astronomy Online degree course. Naturally, he was a little apprehensive about returning to study, as most of the fellow students in his course were tertiary-qualified, while he left school at 17 and became a mine worker in Broken Hill.
Fortunately, Trevor’s worries were short-lived, as his unit instructors helped him feel comfortable about returning to study.
“My teachers said that there is no such thing as a silly question, which was so important to me,” he said. With this encouragement and support, Trevor went on to achieve top honours in the course.
Trevor’s passion and efforts were rewarded when NASA contacted him after hearing about some images he captured of a rare event over the planet Saturn – a raging electrical storm where he observed thunderbolts thought to be 10,000 times more powerful than here on earth. Trevor now regularly contributes images to NASA’s Cassini mission to Saturn.
“There is no way I would be doing what I’m doing now without Swinburne’s help,” he said.
Trevor’s experience at Swinburne has also transformed his confidence. “I am a different person now – I’ve come out of my shell.”
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