04 July 2008 REAL PEOPLE DOING UNREAL THINGS Star man By Jacqui Pile

Vincent Nettmann first began building telescopes when he was eight. He removed the telescopic sight from his dad's rifle and rigged it up to a camera tripod to see the moon more clearly. Years later, Nettmann has turned his hobby into a successful business. He quit his job as an instrument technician to set up his company, Astronomy for the Nation. Now Nettmann gives talks at corporate functions and to tour groups and trains field guides at some of SA's top game lodges. He specialises in one-on-one star gazing sessions with celebrity guests, including those that visit Richard Branson's private game reserve, Ulusaba, near the Kruger National Park. He counts among his clients top overseas stars, including talk show hosts and musicians. "I've always had a passion for presenting textbook astronomy in an accessible way," he says. He will tell you that if you were to take a trip to the moon, it would take you four months of nonstop driving in a car at 120 km/hour. "Better pack some sandwiches," says Nettmann. A trip to Saturn however, would take you 1 500 years in the same car. "I try to fill my talks with the wow' factor," says Nettmann. "If you tell people that the moon is 384 000 km away, they find it difficult to comprehend. I try to root my talks in everyday examples." Nettmann is the resident astronomer at Maropeng at the Cradle of Humankind. On the side, he helps people build telescopes and shows them how to grind down mirrors and assemble their own viewing apparatus. Companies hire him to give afterdinner talks at team-building functions held at game lodges. He also gives talks at company product launches. "Astronomy can be linked in some way to almost any business," he says. Travelling to far-flung areas, Nettmann has also shared his passion for the skies with rural schoolchildren and he assists government in making astronomy more accessible to disadvantaged children. He says one of his most rewarding experiences was doing a show for deaf children. In the darkness, a red light was shone on the interpreter's hands to allow her to tell the children what Nettmann was saying. "Astronomy can cross boundaries between people in unimaginable ways," he says.