Local astronomers view the incredible night sky at Craters of the Moon
Published at | Updated at
ARCO — Staring into the cosmos, milky, vague nebulas glowed, reflecting light down to Earth.
Members of the Idaho Falls Astronomical Society erected their massive telescopes at Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve for a viewing party Saturday night.
The deep black, clear skies winked with stars and the occasional bursts of light as meteors streaked by. The society hosts several star-gazing parties throughout the year, but only twice each year at Craters.
“Best skies around for stargazing,” said Eric Laing, a member of the society.
Laing’s 12-inch telescope, the diameter of the mirror inside, pointed at the Andromeda galaxy which looked like a blue doughnut from about 2.5 million light-yearsaway. Laing said that Friday night some of the society members stayed up as late as 1 a.m. scanning the sky.
“We’ve had parties where we’re up till the sun comes up,” Laing said.
In the absence of a moon, faces were shrouded and it took at least an hour for attendees’ eyes to adjust to the sable-colored night.
Wescott Flaherty, society president, and five other members allowed anyone to look through their telescopes. Flaherty and the other members of the society were kind enough to navigate the universe to find constellations, especially bright stars, planets, galaxies and nebulas.
Flaherty used a green laser pointer to trace the Big Dipper, a constellation of seven stars, part of the larger Ursa Major constellation. Ursa Major derives from the Latin “greater she-bear.” Flaherty used the high-power laser to point a beam, that was visible for miles into the sky, to trace the full constellation.
“Here’s its nose, and its legs are down here,” Flaherty said.
Flaherty’s telescope looks like a long barrel-shaped cannon. A person could hug the telescope and hardly intertwine their fingers to cover its diameter. He maneuvers it deftly, one hand on top of the scope and the other at the base pointing toward guide stars to find nebulas and planets such as Uranus. He isn’t immune to the poking fun at the name of the seventh planet from the sun.
“There’s an old joke, the easiest way to find Uranus is to bend down and cock your head,” Flaherty said.
He peered into the telescope and an attendee asked “So can you find it?”
Flaherty laughed a little before saying “oh wow,” eliciting a laugh from the crowd of five or six attendees around him.
“No, there was a satellite that went by,” Flaherty said.
John Eisenmenger has been with the society for about five years. Eisenmenger likes to use binoculars to pick out stars that he can use as way points to find nebulas and galaxies.
“I always start out with binoculars; they’re really underused,” Eisenmenger said.
He said stargazing is a fun hobby, but not the easiest for those who work mornings.
“On the weekends I try to stay up late at night and then Monday morning comes along and you’re trying to get up,” Eisenmenger said. “I’d better retire if I’m going to do astronomy.”
An attendee, Mike Worl, asked Eisenmenger how the North Star always stays in the same place in our sky.
“Basically the Earth is rotating and so you got the axis of the Earth and it points right at the North Star,” Eisenmenger said.
“Dumb question, but that makes sense,” Worl said.
Eisenmenger said he enjoys the questions and loves to see others curious about the universe. But his favorite part of the viewing parties is not the magnificent bodies millions of light-years away.
“Sometimes, it’s just fun to scan the sky, not really caring where you’re at,” Eisenmenger said.
This article was originally published in the Idaho Falls Post Register. It is used here with permission.