|
|
| |  | |
Dark skies can make life in the country a night-time wonderland
Turn off the lights, go outside on a clear night, and treat yourself to one of the greatest joys of country life. It’s both therapy and an awesome experience. There’s nothing quite like a good viewing of the moon, Mars, Venus, or the Milky Way to wipe away the stresses of life and restore the senses to their proper state.
The bright lights of city life wash out that stellar splendor. Town dwellers miss the rhythm and the wonder of the night sky. Only country folks and those who venture beyond the streetlights and shopping malls can truly get the feel of the stars that enthralled our ancestors down through the ages.
It’s simple, really. Take a deep breath. Look up. Get ready to be thrilled. Dark night skies drew Gil Jones and his family to their country home 40 miles outside downtown Tucson, Ariz. His childhood fascination with astronomy accelerated after moving to the area from Virginia eight years ago. A software engineer for Honeywell, Gil calls Tucson the optics capital of the nation and relishes its clear nights with low humidity.
But, to make the most of his hobby, he wanted truly dark skies, so the family moved here, where neighbors are few. He built his own backyard observatory, complete with retractable roof and computerized telescope.
“It’s really dark out here. It was my dream to build this kind of setup. What astronomers call ‘seeing’ is really good here. You see a sharper image. Moving here propelled my interest in astronomy. I absolutely love it out here and never want to move,” he says. Jones used his telescopes at first to photograph galaxies and nebulas. More recently, he’s become an enthusiastic asteroid spotter, searching the sky for objects in an eccentric orbit that crosses the Earth’s path.
Discovery
So far, he’s credited with discovering five asteroids, all registered through an astronomy clearinghouse. “Right now it’s hard for amateurs to discover anything new because of a completely automated professional telescope called Linear, so I was excited about this,” Jones says. Lots of folks are getting excited about astronomy these days. Kelly Beatty, editor of Night Sky magazine, and executive editor of Sky & Telescope magazine, says more than a million telescopes are sold in the U.S. yearly. “A lot of baby boomers find themselves with the time, money, and interest,” Beatty says.
Buying a telescope might not be the best first move, though. “Too many people buy a telescope and get frustrated because they’ve gotten more complicated and some have little computers built in,” Beatty says. “I recommend taking a lounge chair to the yard, getting cozy with your favorite beverage, then exploring with a good pair of binoculars. Pick out a few constellations. Discover things. After you’re comfortable with it, you may want a telescope. Try not to make it a chore. Astronomy is not hard. Don’t rush out and end up frustrated. Take baby steps first,” he says.
On 35 acres outside Warrensburg, Mo., Vic and Jen Winter built a backyard observatory and regularly open it to public viewing. A retired newspaper photographer, Vic’s passion is photographing the night sky. He and Jen also operate a travel business taking people around the globe to see events such as eclipses from ideal viewpoints.
“We’re trying to help people see what’s going on in the night sky. It’s really terrible that today kids don’t know what a dark sky looks like,” Vic says. That’s exactly what Scott Kindt, a high school science teacher living in Loveland, Colo., thinks, as well. A lifelong astronomy buff, there’s too much light pollution in Loveland to suit him, so he packs his telescopes and chases the dark skies across the West. He photographs stellar events, selling his work in eight art galleries.
“I head into the mountains, to Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, the Rockies, anyplace dark. I wasn’t intending to turn this into a business but I’ve had a passion for both astronomy and photography since childhood, so it makes sense,” he says. Kindt teaches a night astronomy class at a local observatory and operates a website, www.starkids.org. He says it’s a good idea for beginners to join one of the many astronomy clubs across North America.
“There are people who love to show you how to do it. Go to a star party. That’s a good way to learn about telescopes and what’s in the night sky,” Kindt says. The problem of light pollution, now a bigger issue than ever, gave a push to the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA), formed in 1988. It now has 11,000 members in 75 nations, says Bob Gent, IDA public relations officer,
“A lot of people care about the beauty of night skies and have a passion for it. In our society we’re turning night into day and people are losing touch with the beauty of the night,” Gent says. The IDA advocates changing lighting more than completely turning it off. “Lighting can be done nicely with shielding on streetlights, in parks, along walkways and driveways. It makes an amazing difference. A great many people are now concerned, even in rural areas, and there are many zoning ordinances going into place to protect us from the light pollution that’s everywhere. We need dark nights for human health,” Gent says.
“We also need to stay in touch with our stars. Europeans in the Middle Ages could tell the season and time by the stars. Today most of us cannot identify even a single star. We’re losing touch with the night sky.”
|
|
|
|
