WCU astronomers lead 13th annual statewide star party
WCU student Adam Bryant shows Star Party attendee constellation
By Shane Ryden
甜瓜视频app astronomers brought stargazers of all ages to the Cashiers plateau earlier this spring where the night burned bright for the 13th annual Statewide Star Party.
Every year, the North Carolina Science Festival invites more than 40 groups of educators to delve into different, stellar subjects with their community, and this year鈥檚 topic was 鈥淵our Place in Space.鈥�
Volunteers from the Boys and Girls Club of the Plateau and WCU鈥檚 chemistry and physics department collaborated on the evening鈥檚 activities, leading participants through hands-on explorations of the solar system and broader universe.
WCU professor of astronomy, Enrique Gomez, read stories of the cosmos to the young and young at heart and led the group on a solar system walk, using models to illustrate the size and grandeur of our corner of the universe.
鈥淲e have hosted events for the NC Science Festival since its inception in 2011, and we have often been the westernmost event of the festival. The statewide star party involved dozens of sites on the same weekend in April, and we strive to bring the experience of science in a way that is accessible and enjoyable to all demographics and all ages,鈥� Gomez said.
In addition to offering his wisdom to the public, Gomez invited future educators to attend, as well as passionate club members and WCU students who see the night sky as something to share.
WCU student Adam Bryant
Adam Bryant, a second-year science education major and founder of the Catamount Astronomy Club, sees something special and deeply human in the act of stargazing.
鈥淭he thing I always love about events tailored around astronomy, especially astronomy that鈥檚 looking through telescopes, pointing out constellations, having people ask questions of all sorts from all levels is on those sorts of nights, a lot of the baggage and the titles and the worries and the things that you have all kind of drift away, and you鈥檙e just there enjoying nature with other people,鈥� Bryant said.
鈥淵ou take yourself out of the stream of the rat race and experience wonder. You slow down a little bit, and you go from caring about what you just saw on social media or the TV or what your friend said, to staring through the eyepiece at the craters of the moon or a star-forming region 1500 light-years away, birthing stars over the course of millennia 鈥� You鈥檙e hearing constellation stories that have been passed down for millennia ever since mankind has been telling those stories.鈥�
For most of the evening, Bryant stood beside his personal Newtonian reflector, a device closer in appearance to a mortar than a hobbyist鈥檚 telescope, and invited attendees to wander the sky at their leisure.
鈥淏y the end of the star party, I was letting kids control my telescope. They got to point out Jupiter and the moon and the Pleiades star cluster,鈥� Bryant said.
Astronomy invites its own special curiosity, Bryant described. 鈥淚t鈥檚 important because it lets wonder into a life that鈥檚 mundane,鈥� he said.
鈥淵ou鈥檙e always going to see things like Orion and Vega and Jupiter. You鈥檙e always going to see them, one way or another. But the more you find out about them, the more you learn about them over the course of the rest of your life, then every time you look at them, it鈥檚 going to be slightly different.
鈥淓very single time you learn about it, you look at it in the sky and go, 鈥業 didn鈥檛 know that about you,鈥� and it kind of builds on itself.
鈥淎ll the constellations have their season. Orion is in the sky when the leaves are not on the trees, Scorpius barely scrapes over the southern horizon in June and July, and August, you barely get to see them. But when you鈥檙e seeing them, it鈥檚 a special thing.鈥�
Western North Carolina is getting brighter with the rest of the world. More and more lights across the continent mean less dark skies.
鈥淲e live in a society that鈥檚 basically one of the first societies to be nearly fully separated from the natural night and constellations,鈥� Bryant said.
While life might not require that we know the stars as well as our ancestors, the more that we do learn of our place in the universe, the greater our appreciation for its scale and our small place within it.
WCU and its next generation of science educators reminded the world this year that our days don鈥檛 end when the sky gets dark.
鈥淎t the end of the day, it鈥檚 the night. The day鈥檚 not over yet. There鈥檚 something else you can do. It鈥檚 a clear night, and a clear night is full of possibility.鈥�
