Observing the stars: Local astronomers plan for meteor showers | News, Sports, Jobs

Earth is now in the midst of a meteor stream for both the Perseids and the lesser known Delta Aquariids, and it’s a great time to get outdoors to watch the show.

James “Jim” Krug, director of the Neil Armstrong Planetarium at Altoona Area High School, said that anyone interested in looking at the stars or watching for “falling stars” can find many dark areas nearby.

“There is a lot going on in this area … you don’t have to go very far from Altoona to experience dark skies, which is nice, we’re lucky that way,” Krug said. “The weather isn’t always perfect, but when we do get clear skies, it’s great for observing.”

Watching the show

Using a telescope, especially a high-powered one, is great for a closeup of the moon’s surface and to see a small set of stars, but the best way to view a meteor shower is to just look up.

“You actually don’t need your own telescope,” said Tom Kasner, president of Starlight Astronomy Club and the operator of the Mountain Lion Observatory at Fort Roberdeau. “it only covers a section of sky roughly the size of the moon, so you have a better chance of catching a meteor with your naked eye.”

Searching the night skies for meteors is best done away from city lights, on a clear night when the moon is far from full, and between the hours of 11 p.m. and sunrise. The Delta Aquariids peak in late July, while the Perseids peak Aug. 11-13. Both showers continue through most of August, according to NASA.

This year, though, moonlight will interfere with Perseids’ peak, meaning the best time to see meteors will be this week, when Perseids’ meteors mix with the dimmer Delta Aquariids’ peak, or in early August. In a good year, with a dark night and at Perseids’ peak, stargazers could see about 100 visible “shooting stars” an hour.

Unless standing is the only option, it can be advantageous to find a good spot to throw down a blanket, get comfortable and look up toward the north to watch the show unfold.

The main factor in seeing meteors, other than having a clear, dark sky, is having an abundance of patience. It will take about 30 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the dark so the stars are more visible, according to solarsystem.nasa.gov.

“Be patient — the show will last until dawn, so you have plenty of time to catch a glimpse,” the website states. A glimpse might be all star gazers will see of a meteor, as these tiny pieces of rocky debris — the size of sand grains with a few as big as peas or marbles — streak across the sky at roughly 133,200 mph relative to the planet.

If viewing the night sky in the wee hours of the morning seems daunting, there are other options.

For those looking for a little direction, local astronomy clubs allow everyone, from seasoned astronomers to amateur skywatchers, to come together, get involved and share their passion for the heavens.

Starlight Astronomy Club

In his role with the Starlight Astronomy Club and the Mountain Lion Observatory, Kasner helps coordinate education meetings and skywatching events for the community.

Starlight members meet at the Mountain Lion Observatory on the third Thursday of every month, with a public skywatch the following evening at Canoe Creek State Park near Hollidaysburg.

Everyone gets involved, Kasner said, and the public can try out Starlight member’s high-powered telescopes or use their own equipment.

For anyone who has a telescope but doesn’t know how to use it, club members can help.

“If you have a telescope in your closet, and don’t know how to use it, bring it out to one of our skywatches at Canoe Creek and somebody there will assist you,” Kasner said.

That’s what James Jones of DuBois did Friday night when the group gathered in the parking lot at Canoe Creek.

Jones bought a telescope to give him something to do during retirement, other than golf, he said. Unfortunately, he hasn’t used a telescope or taken part in serious stargazing since college, in the ’70s, he added.

“The last time I looked through a telescope was 1972,” he said. He hopes, though, to master his new hobby and share it with his grandchildren.

As Kasner showed him how to operate his telescope, Jones said he was impressed with the club and the friendly atmosphere.

“He enjoys passing on his knowledge; you can tell that in five minutes,” Jones said while Kasner took time out to aim his own equipment at the Big Dipper’s handle so visitors could see the double stars that make up one of the points.

The next public program at the Mountain Lion Observatory, set for Friday, will feature an outdoor presentation on the new James Webb Space Telescope, which released its first images to the public on July 12.

The Webb photos are stunning, Kasner said, and the new images show what are believed to be more galaxies beyond anyone’s imagination.

“As one of the hosts, we got a little bit of advance information … the pictures we got are certainly worth the hype they provided,” Kasner said. “We’ll be talking about what they found and the differences between those and what we had before; it’s a little like night and day.”

Kasner, like his fellow astronomers across the globe, is looking forward to discussing at future meetings the release of more information from Webb, which may provide new insights on the composition of exoplanet atmospheres and the formation of stars.

Neil Armstrong Planetarium

Krug, 42, director of the Neil Armstrong Planetarium at Altoona Area High School since 2003, worked with Kasner to start the Mountain Lion Observatory in 2018, and shares his passion for astronomy education.

“We run a number of public skyshow dates throughout the year, and our most popular skyshow is still our longest running feature, the ‘Holiday Skyshow Season of Light,’” Krug said.

The free skyshows pair an educational presentation with a 360-degree display of the relevant celestial bodies, giving the audience a comprehensive look into the heavens.

Beyond single shows, the planetarium hosts longer, more in-depth adult educational courses over a nine-week period that cover topics such as learning the night sky, popular conspiracies and the history of UFOs.

Krug also hosts private skyshows for birthday parties and Scout groups, he said, and even some adult shows where they can have a party and learn a bit of astronomy at the same time.

These private shows, according to Krug, are so in-demand that he struggles to accommodate all of the current requests for reservations.

In 2005, the Neil Armstrong Planetarium became one of the first 20 planetariums in the world to utilize a fully digital projector system, called the SciDome, Krug added.

“So, for many decades now, we have been able to offer the Altoona area both older slide shows, and full-dome contemporary digital shows,” Krug said, “and late this summer we are actually upgrading our system again … so once again we’ll have a really state-of-the-art system.”

The new system will feature a higher display resolution, as well as highly interactive star charts that are updated constantly by new information from NASA.

In addition to the upgraded projector, the planetarium’s Space Race Museum, which displays genuine NASA and Soviet artifacts from the 1960s, was recently expanded.

“Now, when people visit the planetarium, they not only get a skyshow experience, where they learn about the night sky, but they can see some hands-on artifacts as well,” Krug said.

Hicks Observatory

The pandemic shut down the public skywatch events at Juniata College’s Hickes Observatory. The venue usually offers free, public skywatch nights once every three weeks.

Juniata College professor of physics Matthew Beaky said he hopes to start up the programs this fall. At these events, Beaky uses the observatory’s 16-foot telescope to show attendees different astronomical points of interest across the sky.

“I’m always willing to hold special observing events for community groups, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, middle and high schoolers,” Beaky, 55, said.

Since younger students might not be able to stay up late for a usual skywatch night, Beaky also offers daytime programs, such as demonstrating the scale of the solar system using model planets placed across campus.

Juniata College’s second observatory, the Sparks Farm Robotic Observatory, located 40 miles south of campus, is not open to the public and is…