Wednesday, August 10, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
STARS: More star
party events are
in store for Sisters
Continued from page 3
International Space Station
passes over Sisters. As I
stood at the door of the SPRD
building looking up into the
gathering darkness it took
only six minutes for it to go
over just as the sun was set-
ting, and was so imagination
stimulating. When we got
to the telescope area, Saturn
and Mars were very visible,
which was fun to know the
planets and which Greek
mythology the stars were
associated with. What a fun
night! I was glad I went, and
I’m planning on going next
month as well!”
Five members of the club
assembled their telescopes
on the north side of the SHS
parking lot. Thomas Jeffrey
was there, along with Jim
Hammond, Rod Moorehead,
Jim Doherty and SHS sci-
ence/astronomy teacher Rima
Givot, who set up the high
school’s RECON scope with
the help of SHS science stu-
dent Rylee Funk.
Funk and fellow astron-
omy student Alex Burroughs
are two of only eight high
school students chosen from
the West who attended the
RECON Conference August
3-5 in Carson City, Nevada.
RECON is the acronym
for Research and Education
Collaborative Occultation
Network, a project designed
to determine the size of rocky,
icy bodies that orbit the sun
beyond the planet Neptune,
and a regular part of the SHS
astronomy class.
Even in the dark, Jim
Hammond, long-time SAC
member stands out — both
for his physical size, and
his knowledge of just about
everything you’d want to
know about astronomy. In
the dim light, aiming his
powerful laser into the area
of the Andromeda Galaxy,
he said, “OK, here’s a much
abbreviated version of the
Andromeda and Perseus
myth, we’ll start with Perseus
carrying the head of Medusa
and rescuing Andromeda
but also include the part
about Cepheus sacrificing
Andromeda and Cassiopeia
bragging about the beauty of
Andromeda.”
At that moment he had the
attention of just about every-
one within hearing distance
as he continued, waving the
laser around.
“The constellations
of Cassiopeia, Perseus,
Andromeda and Cepheus
are close together in the sky.
Cetus, the sea monster, is not
too far away, and part of the
constellation of Perseus is the
head of Medusa.”
With that he stopped,
turned off the laser and
added, “and there’s a link to a
longer version.” (http://www.
greeka.com/greece-myths/
perseus-andromeda.htm)
As the evening got darker,
many of the participants
began to notice that the stars
that make up the constella-
tion Scorpius on the southern
horizon became more dis-
tinct. While one of the par-
ticipants was looking through
Karen and Jim Doherty’s
telescope for a better view
of Mars, he asked Jim how
long he’d been studying outer
space.
“Karen and I are retired
and residents of Sisters. I’ve
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been into astronomy since
I’ve been about 13 years old,”
he said. “That makes some 53
years into this hobby.
“My current telescope is
the sixth one I’ve owned; it’s
a Celestron, collapsible, Sky-
Watcher.” Then he pointed
overhead and added, “The
Milky Way’s clear, tonight’s
excellent for viewing many
man-made and celestial
objects; the international
space station came over
twice. The planets, Jupiter,
Saturn, Mars and Neptune are
all in full view, and there’s no
moon to ruin the dark skies.”
He added, “Dark skies in
Sisters needs to be a trade-
mark of our community. The
Sisters Astronomy Club has
been working hard to help
keep it this way. Our commu-
nity needs to realize the value
of seeing the heavens and
appreciating the grandeur of
the Milky Way Galaxy above
us. It’s too easy to allow
excessive night lighting to
gradually creep into our lives
and lose this most precious
view. Once lost, it is very
hard to get it back.
23
photo by Jim anderson
Karen and Jim Doherty of sisters tuning up their telescope for viewing the
heavens saturday, July 31, in the sisters High school parking area.
“The Sisters Astronomy
Club is focused on provid-
ing a source of education and
entertainment for all of our
community, and devoted to
expanded education of our
youth in the fields of astron-
omy and science, and I have
to give special thanks to the
Sisters High School astron-
omy class for their work.”
The next SAC view-
ing night will be Saturday,
August 27, at 8:30 p.m., same
location.
our community
needs to realize the value
of seeing the heavens
and appreciating the
grandeur of the Milky Way
galaxy above us.
— Jim Doherty