Edward Charles Pickering
The addition of a home observatory at Morgan Hill culminated years of interest in astronomy as a hobby. Barns was a charter member of the Association of Variable Star Observers and member of the American Astronomical Society. For the former organization, he cataloged their membership, library, and lantern slide collection. Barns was similarly active in the British Astronomical Association and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. To support his interest in astronomy, Barns obtained a printing press, which he named the "Diana Printery." He began turning out "neatly printed booklets," such as "The Practical Observing of Variable Stars." Upon the death of noted astronomer Edward Charles Pickering, Charles Barns published "Memorial to Edward Charles Pickering," which included his own poem of tribute. Within the decade he had named his press "Science Service Press" and later "Pacific Science Press."