Zane Landers is an amateur astronomer and telescope maker from Arizona. Zane builds and regularly observes with Dobsonian telescopes as large as 40" in aperture, and grinds his own mirrors, with his favorite telescope being a 14.7" f/2.9 built to resemble a conventional 8" in size and weight.
Zane has been featured in Sky & Telescope (Sept 2018 and TBA 2019), TIME magazine (Labor Day 2018), National Geographic, La Vanguardia, and Clarin, The Arizona Daily Star, and Astronomy Technology Today. He has also written numerous articles and reviews for CloudyNights.com and other astronomy websites.
Zane is a major advocate for amateur astronomers to join and assist the American Association of Variable Star Observers (aavso.org) to help monitor and study variable stars - which can be done even with a modest backyard telescope. He also highly recommends joining and assisting the International Dark Sky Association (darksky.org) to mediate urban light pollution, not only for the sake of astronomy but also to protect wildlife and improve human health.