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Seeing in the Dark

Published on Sep 17, 2007 at 2:18 pm. 1 Comment.
Filed under amateur astronomy, books.

Long before I decided to be a physics and astronomy professor, long before I decided to study astronomy, I was fascinated by the sky. When I was in junior high school, my Dad subscribed to Astronomy magazine (which was fairly new at the time). In college, I studied and read about astronomy on my own. I was purely a physics major. Astronomy was just an avocation. Then, in graduate school, things changed. That is when I really became serious and decided to be an astronomer. Until then, I was an amateur astronomer. In the sense that I still love the sky, and I still love to look through the telescope and to show off the sky to others, then I still am an amateur astronomer. Of course, now I am also a professional, too.

Amateur astronomers come in all shapes and sizes as well as all degrees of dedication and seriousness. Some are quite single-minded about what they are doing, and they spend many tens of thousands of dollars on their hobby. Some are focussed on just looking at the sky, and others have a particular project, or set of projects, that they work on. Many amateur astronomers are astrophotographers. Many amateur astronomers hunt comets, asteroids, or supernovae. Some track variable stars, collecting data that is later used by professional astronomers. In fact, quite a bit of astronomical research is still done by amateurs.

A few years ago, Timothy Ferris wrote a book, Seeing in the Dark, in which he shares this love of the sky. Ferris also expounds on the advances made in amateur astronomy. Today’s amateurs have equipment at their disposal that can outperform what professional astronomers had just a few decades ago. It is no wonder that serious amateur astronomers are to be taken seriously! They don’t all use this equipment to do astronomical research, but some do. And, what they do is useful. Face it. The universe is BIG, and there is only a finite number of professional astronomers. We can’t cover all of it. So, some of the research and monitoring of the sky has to be left to amateurs.

Now, PBS is doing a movie apparently based on the book. The movie, naturally, is next being shown here in my location when I am teaching class! Still, it looks like it might be good. It seeks to introduce the wonders of the sky, and the wonders of skygazing, to the general public. As with many PBS programs, this one is not just a program. You can buy the program on DVD, and it comes with its own web site. The web site has a lot of interesting features for a novice amateur astronomer, including star charts, beautiful images, additional background on people, places, and things shown in the program, as well as observing projects and hands-on activities for teachers and students.

So, if you get a chance, check out your local broadcast schedule so you can watch this program, or you can just buy the book and/or DVD (or maybe find them at your local library).

-Astroprof