Henry Sipes became interested in space as a kid using money saved from cucumber sales to fly Estes rockets. Carl Sagan’s TV series Cosmos fueled his interest in astronomy and science. After graduating from high school, he went on to receive a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the School of Interdisciplinary Engineering at Purdue University. He completed course work in areas of spacecraft design, geology, and astronomy.

Henry continued to feed his passion for space by building telescopes and small observatories. He has conducted many private and public astronomy programs for the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and other groups since 1990. In 2006, he was honored to accept a volunteer park astronomer position at the Otter Creek Park Observatory near Fort Knox. For his volunteer work, he received the commission of Kentucky Colonel.

For close to 10 years, Henry volunteered for the Jefferson Community and Technical College and Harrison County Parks and Recreation Department as park astronomer for South Harrison Park, Indiana. He also served his community as a NASA Solar System Ambassador. During this time he completed a Master of Science in Astronomy from Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia.

Henry has worked the last 23 years as a packaging engineer for a privately held, $800 million global manufacturer of a broad line of electronic interconnect solutions, including IC-to-Board and IC Packaging, High-Speed Board-to-Board, High-Speed Cables, Mid-Board and Panel Optics, Flexible Stacking, and Micro/Rugged components and cables. Many of these products are used in the aerospace industry.

He lives with his wife and family on a 25-acre tree farm raising chickens and honey bees in his spare time. Along with the chickens and bees, his family has three dogs and two cats and all the wildlife the great outdoors can offer. Henry enjoys hiking and has backpacked numerous trails around Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, and North Carolina culminating in a four-day trip through the Grand Canyon.