William D. McDowell Observatory
A long afternoon of opera rehearsals followed by traffic on the commute home equals a night of relaxation. The skies are fairly clear, so I decide to go to the McDowell Observatory in Lyndhurst for the public viewing night. To my surprise, there were a ton of kids with their parents lining up to the 20″ telescope to get a glimpse of the star Castor. It isn’t quite dark yet, but I could tell that the astronomer in charge is anxious to get things rolling. I took the introduction to astronomy classes which he taught, so I was a familiar face in the sea of little people. He asked me if I wouldn’t mind helping, “Of course I can,” I replied.
I ended up talking with kids and their parents about stars, nebula, the planets, etc. There was one bright young astronomer who was quite knowledgeable of things stellar. I asked him how he knew all this stuff. “From TV,” the boy responded. I chuckled when I found out how much of the discovery channel he watches. Who knew that a third grader could talk about how Pluto was no longer a planet but a dwarf planet. Or how the rings of Saturn are made up of ice and dust.
The highlight of the night was seeing all these kids “oo-ing” and “ah-ing” over the rings of Saturn and the Triangulum of Orion’s great nebula. I barely got a chance to look into the eyepiece myself, but the kids made the day worth it. I was tired, a little hungry, but very satisfied. It is so important that we educate children in things like astronomy, other sciences, the arts, etc. They are the future.
Below is a picture (taken with my blackberry) of the William D. McDowell observatories telescope. It’s a 20″ Ritchey-Chretien telescope made by optical guidance systems. Mounted on the scope is a Takahashi FS102 Fluorite Apochromatic refractor.
