View the Night Sky With Local Astronomy Group
A quick chat with a Naperville newsmaker
Night and day, Naperville Astronomical Association members point telescopes upward to help others view and appreciate fascinating objects in the sky.
Members will set up six to 10 telescopes Wednesday on the Riverwalk in conjunction with the Naperville Public Library’s summer reading program so people can observe the night sky.
The group returns the morning of July 28 to observe the sun through telescopes equipped with sun-safe filters.
Mitch Gerdisch is the group’s public relations and Internet services officer and one of many members who enjoy sharing their hobby with the public.
Q. How many members do you have in the Naperville Astronomical Association?
A. We have 205 memberships, which equates to approximately 300 members because some are family memberships.
Q. Is Naperville too bright at night to see much in the sky?
A. Night pollution is a problem, but for our public nights we schedule them when there is a first quarter moon. We should have a few planets to look at this time of the year.
Q. What can people expect to see on Wednesday?
A. The moon is always wonderful to look at, especially when it is not full because you get nice shadow effects. You can tell it is mountainous, which surprises people.
We should see the cloud band of Jupiter and up to four of its moons. We may catch Venus and Saturn after sunset. There also are some deep space objects we can pull in such as double stars, the Ring Nebula and maybe a galaxy or two.
Q. Can you see the International Space Station?
A. When it is visible, you can see it without a telescope. Same with the shuttle, and they are fun to see. I’d recommend heavens- above.com. You put in your specific location, and it will tell you what bright taillights are going by.
There are things called Iridium flares that are the satellites used for the phone service. This Web site tells you when the flare will occur, which is a nice reflection of the sun off their antenna panels. It looks like someone is up in space swinging a flashlight by you, going dim then bright and then dim again.
Q. How many public events do you have?
A. We try to do a couple a month. On Aug. 3 at 8 p.m., we will have our first public night for our inaugural observatory opening.
We completed a major update and move of our observatories at the Naperville Springbrook Water Reclamation plant. There we have a 12.5- inch telescope with a real-time video camera we feed to a TV monitor to see faint things quite well.
Q. How should a beginner start the hobby?
A. Don’t buy a telescope. At most, buy a planisphere, which some call a star wheel. You line up the date and time and it tells you what constellations are visible. The first step is to learn the constellations, because that is how you will navigate the sky with a telescope. That is the advantage of the club, because you can look through other people’s telescopes and decide what is best for you.
Q. How do telescopes work?
A. There are two basic types: refractors, which use a lens, and reflectors, which use a mirror.
The pupil of your eye only gets to be a quarter of an inch big. If you are looking at something as big as a galaxy with the naked eye, a lot of its light goes right past your head. The idea is to put a big bucket in front of your head to catch the light.
Similar to catching rain, you use as wide a bowl as you can rather than a tall skinny glass. It is the same idea with a telescope, the more light you gather the more you can see.
Q. What are the benefits of being a club member?
A. Beginners do not need to know a lot to join. When you do become a member, you will have access to our dark sites, which are farmyards we have permission to use where the skies are darker.
Second is access to our Yahoo group that members use to correspond with each other in real time. Third, you become a user of our observatories. It is a hobby that you can do to any level that you want.
Q. Can Scouts work on a badge coming to some of these events?
A. We actually have youth group nights in the spring and in the fall where groups come to our observatory. Keep an eye on our Web site for the signup.
Q. What weather should we hope for on Wednesday?
A. The bottom line is if you can’t see the stars, then we can’t either. If the sky is cloudy, events cannot be held because telescopes cannot see through clouds. If it is partly cloudy, that is a judgment call.
– Joan Broz
(c) 2007 Daily Herald; Arlington Heights, Ill.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.