L. A. L. da Silva was born at Porto Alegre, south Brazil, in 1961. Eight years later, soon after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon by the first time, he was gifted with a book written by professor Rubens de Azevedo, a great brazilian geographer and amateur astronomer, entitled “The Astronautic Age”. Stimulated by that book, he tryed his first identification of the constellations at the now distant southern summer of 1970. At that same year’s autumn, his father showed him a bright comet, probably comet Bennett .
However, it would be another famous comet, Kohouteck 1973-f, which would refresh his astronomy interest. The year 1973 was also important by two additional reasons: the Pioneer 10 probe Jupiter flyby, in December, and the acquisition of a modest 4×50 pair of binoculars…
The year 1974 arrived with a series of monthly articles written by Ronaldo Rogério de Freitas Mourão, a professional astronomer at National Observatory, in Rio de Janeiro, published at Correio do Povo, a local traditional newspaper. The texts described sky aspects month by month, including star charts.
During the winter that year, da Silva bought Mourão’s book Atlas Celeste, as well as his first telescope, a modest altazimuth 40 mm refractor, equipped with a single low quality eyepiece providing 40 times magnification. In spite of the poor quality of that small instrument, during the next one and a half year he was able to wonder himself with observations of Moon’s surface, Jupiter’s satellites, Venus’s phases, and Saturn’s rings, just like Galileo Galilei had done 365 years before.
At february 1976, da Silva acquired his second telescope, an equatorial mounted 60 mm diameter refractor, infinitely better than the first scope. With such an instrument, he initiated a sistematic visual survey
of all constellations visible from the 30 degrees South latitude of Porto Alegre city, a study which would culminate with observing celestial objects in 82 out of the 88 official constellations approved in 1922 by International Astronomical Union (IAU).
With that same telescope, he also conducted a white light solar observation program, covering a complete undecenial sunspot cycle (cycle number 21) between 1976 and 1987.
At the spring 1977, da Silva took part in an Introductory Astronomy Course promoted by Astronomy Department of Rio Grande do Sul Federal University (UFRGS) Physics Institute, at the local city planetarium. One year later, he also attended another short astronomy course, by professor Fernando G. Sampaio, a journalist specialized in science divulgation.
Beginning in 1979, an intense cycle of activity started, including the Physics’s Bachelor course at UFRGS, the foundation of the Sociedade Astronômica Riograndense (SARG), and the first activities focused on astronomy teaching and science divulgation.
From 1981 to 1982, da Silva served as vice-president, and then, in 1983-84, as the president of the Brazillian Union of Astronomy. At 1985-86 took part in several international programs related to the return of Halley’s comet. At 1989, he obtained a Master in Science degree in Astrophysics at UFRGS, studying the peculiar supernova 1987A.
In 1991, he published a book entitled “Modern Astronomy Topics”, by UFRGS Editions. In 1992, he created the KC Productions, a profit organization dedicated to science teaching and divulgation. He was also founder and, from 1991 until 1999, editor-in-chief for the astronomical newspaper Cosmos, a periodical with nationwide circulation. Professor da Silva also created the first brazillian astronomical electronic magazine, Ciência & Cosmos, which circulated between 1999 and 2001.
He has been an active science reporter and commentarist, participating in hundreds of radio and TV programs, collaborating with great names of the local journalism, such as Flávio Alcaraz Gomes, Raul Moreau, and Lauro Quadros, among others. He was also author of the series “The Sky Monthly”, published by local newspaper Zero Hora during about a decade, from 2000 until 2009.
Professor da Silva has been a member of several brazillian national and foreign associations, such as the Brazillian Astronomical Society, the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, the International Occultation Timming Association, and the American Association of Variable Star Observers. He was co-founder of the “Liga Ibero-Americana de Astronomia” and served as coordinator of the Novae Section of that League.
As a professional researcher, da Silva published papers about supernovae and elliptical galaxies at periodicals such as The Astronomical Journal, Astrophysics and Space Science, Revista Mexicana de Astronomía y Astrofísica, and Information Bulletin on Variable Stars. He is currently interested in astrobiology.
Since 1992 until 2017 he was adjunct professor of physics and astronomy at Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos (UNISINOS), situated in São Leopoldo, south Brazil. At 1997, at the same University, created an educational program known as Astronomy Workshops, now emancipated and available on Youtube, completing 24 years of continuous activities. During 2018 and 2019 he was physics professor at Rio Grande do Sul Federal University (UFRGS), at Tramandaí, south Brazil.
In 2006 he took part in the foundation of the Association for Uncommon Phenomena Investigations and, in 2009, during the International Year of Astronomy, created the Omega Centauri Network for the Advancement of Scientific Education, which currently operates a mobile planetarium visiting schools, among other activities. He is, at present, president of the curator council of that non-profit organization.
His present activities include teaching, media science divulgation, UFO debunking, amateur observations with telescopes from 10 to 16 inches in aperture, conferences and courses, field expeditions, nature’s digital imagery, and amateur meteorological observations. He describes himself as a “nature’s fascinated admirer”.