Giovanni Porretta believes the theft of his massive, one-of-a-kind telescope was a professional job.
The eight feet long, 350 pound optical instrument was stolen from his locked backyard observatory at his Owen Street home sometime during the weekend of Oct. 30.
Porretta, 65, says the thieves appear to have known exactly what they were looking for.
"They would have to know basically that this was a serious piece of equipment because they didn't touch anything else," said Porretta. "That's why I believe it wasn't done by amateurs. This was done by people who knew what they were doing because amateurs would've taken anything just to get a buck."
The amateur astronomer, full-time sculptor and former professor at Georgian College finished building the high-tech telescope himself just over two years ago.
He recently tried to sell it on Kijiji because he needed to get the telescope out of his backyard observatory before it snowed.
"If it starts to snow I'll be unable to get a truck back there to move all my studio equipment. I wanted to beat the weather."
He had some bites on his ad but the telescope didn't sell.
"There were a couple of people I did give the address to but they never showed up," he said. "I figured the heck with it, I'm not just going to give it away so I thought I'd put it in storage and try again to sell it later."
Porretta has liked astronomy ever since he was a kid and got his first amateur telescope about ten years ago.
Then he figured he could build his own which in addition to the dollar value of $30,000, the stolen telescope also has sentimental value because he made it himself.
"It's like giving birth to a baby,' he said. "My name is engraved in the aluminium."
When he discovered it was missing from his studio, Porretta says he was shocked and very disappointed - in himself.
"Had I not taken it apart it would still be there. There was no way these guys would've been able to take it," said Porretta.
Seven years ago thieves broke in and stole some of his smaller telescopes and very expensive equipment and cameras.
"They were just as professional," he said. "I think it's somebody just trying to make money."
Porretta says he's seen many moons and has no regrets about missing this week's Super Moon.
His best memory of his home-made telescope is seeing the international space station through that big lens.
"It was quite unique."
