When overcast weather last Monday night forced the rescheduling of Becker Community Education’s Starwatch Party with WCCO meteorologist Mike Lynch, director Michelle Peacock had to scramble to find an alternate location. She came up with the South Santiago Lutheran Church, which had space available Monday night, as well as some wide open spaces free of light pollution where Lynch could set up his large telescopes for the outdoor portion of the program.
Pastor Mike Pancoast welcomed the audience of around 40 people to the event and described the evening program before introducing Lynch, who provided a slide show with information on the size and location of various heavenly bodies, and maps of the major constellations visible at this time of year in the northern hemisphere. Those included the big and little bears (Ursa Major and Ursa Minor), the North Star (Polaris), Orion the Hunter (with the red giant star Betelgeuse), Cassiopeia (the famous “W” shaped grouping) and bright Sirius in Canis Major (the Big Dog). Lynch provided “star maps” in a handout he had prepared, which would allow observers to find those and other astronomical sites during the outdoor portion of the program.
Lynch also pointed out a number of astronomy websites that can be downloaded to personal computers or smart phones, including www.stellarium.org, www.heavens-above.com, www.space.com and his own site, www.lynchandthestars.com. These and other sites can provide star and planet locations and other astronomical data.
He also provided a quick overview of the universe, noting that the sun is 300,000 times more massive than Earth, that light travels 5.8 trillion miles in one year (a light year), and that the diameter of our Milky Way Galaxy is 100,000 light years. Our nearest neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy, is 2.3 million light years away.
With the majority of audience also being members of the church congregation, it was no surprise that the kitchen serving shelf was filled with cookies, bars, and baked treats of all kinds. When the indoor program was completed and the refreshments served, Lynch led the group outdoors to the three telescopes he had set up on the south lawn of the church.
His large telescopes looked more like medieval artillery pieces at first glance, long tubes with large wooden bases and electric motor attachments so that they can be programmed to follow the movements of the stars and planets. After programming the large telescopes, Lynch used a powerful green laser pointer (from Optotronics Co.) with which he was able to point out the individual stars within constellations. The telescopes were able to bring distant, barely visible star clusters into sharp focus, and the view of the moon through one of the larger telescopes was amazingly detailed.
Lynch recommended that at least $250 would be a reasonable price for a good first telescope, and he recommended a “Dobsonian” reflector-type telescope, of which the Orion®, Celestron® and Meade® brands were among the best. For local sources he said that Radio City in Moundsview, MN is a shop he has frequently dealt with, and Starizona in Tucson, AZ was cited as a good on-line source for equipment.
Prior to the program start, Lynch had a number of copies of his book “Starwatch” on hand for sale, along with some of his stargazing T-shirts, both of which he signed for buyers at the event.
The Becker Community Ed. office has scheduled the next Starwatch Party with Lynch for Mon., Oct. 12, Peacock said, with the location TBD.
