LIKE A
TANNI WENGER PHOTOGRAPHY STUDIOS PHOTO
IN GRANT COUNTY
GRANT COUNTY HAS SOME OF THE PUREST
NIGHT SKIES A PERSON COULD ASK FOR
You can pack up your telescope, binoculars or other
stargazing gear and head to a high point, or simply bring
a pillow and a blanket into the backyard - you will find
the stars either way.
Once you are out in the darkness for about 15
minutes, you will be surprised at how well your eyes
adjust and how much you can see. You can find a lot of
information with a little bit of online searching, and
online charts, which are updated by month, will usually
have the planet positions shown along with the stars.
While an impromptu visit to the night sky is always
an adventure, there are several meteor showers every
year if you want to plan ahead. However, coming in
August 2017 is a rare celestial event every stargazer,
seasoned or not, should plan on seeing, and you won’t
even have to stay up late for it.
For the first time in over two decades, a total solar
eclipse is coming to North America, and its path
couldn’t be more convenient for viewers who live in or
travel to Grant County.
A total solar eclipse occurs when the shadow of the
moon obscures the sun, and during any one eclipse,
totality, where the viewing is greatest and longest, is at
best only in a narrow track on Earth.
The trajectory of totality for this particular eclipse
arcs across a swath of Oregon. No Oregon county has
greater land mass in the prime viewing path than Grant,
Solar eclipse to darken
Oregon skies in 2017
Pendleton
Portland
Lincoln
City
La Grande
Salem
Newport
Baker
City
Corvallis
Prineville
Eugene
Bend
Path of total eclipse
Sources: www.eclipse2017.org;
www.greatamericaneclipse.com
Prairie
City
Ontario
John Day will experience
more than 2 minutes of
darkness during the total
eclipse when it peaks at
10:23 a.m., Aug. 21, 2017.
Alan Kenaga/EO Media Group
with the path covering all but a sliver of our turf.
Even better, the show will be mid-morning, when
clear skies are more than likely. Combine that with our
wide open spaces and big sky, and it looks like this will
be one of the greatest places to view the eclipse.
Although the total length of time to view the
phenomenon as it passes the United States is only about
an hour and a half, and viewing time as it passes
overhead roughly two minutes, the memory of seeing
an astronomic spectacle of this caliber will last a
lifetime.
L
LOCA
SCOTTA CALLISTER PHOTO
GET OUT & GO
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Stargazing e xp
JOHN FIEDOR
If you see John Fiedor standing outside at
night somewhere, staring up at the night sky, he’s
fine — just a little “lost in space.”
Fiedor, a passionate stargazer, refers to stars
as “lights above, that you know so well, who greet
you as old friends, put on a show for you, comfort
you and dare you to wonder.”
What he enjoys most is that “at a certain point
in the hobby you become so familiar with the
night sky that you lose all fear of the night.”
Countless times he’s pulled up to his house
at night, and on his way to the front door,
stopped and gazed up at the starry night sky —
often for a half-hour or more — before heading
on inside.
Fiedor, now reitired after 17 years with the
John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, has
lived in Dayville for over 20 years. He’s been
passionate about stargazing ever since his Boy
Scouting days in the 1960s when he attended
troop stargazing programs he thoroughly
enjoyed.
“I learned to recognize the constellations and
in my early career as a park ranger in the 1970s, I
used to give similar stargazing programs for visitors,”
he said.
He developed night sky programs — which
he still presents — for the public featuring the
Fossil Beds and its connections to the night sky.
His nighttime sky thrills include seeing his first
galaxy (other than the Milky Way) in 2004, — the
Andromeda, 2.5-million light years away.
“In my imagination, to see something so far
away that even the Starship Enterprise couldn’t
reach to explore, was a thrill, he said.” First laying
his eyes on Uranus and Neptune a few years ago
were also memorable moments.
For local stargazers, Fiedor has great news.
“Grant County has one of the most pristine
night skies in the lower 48 states. It’s easy to find
a good stargazing location here. Just find ground
with a view of the horizons and away or shielded
from all lights, and you are set to watch as the
dusk fades. All you need are your eyes for the
grand view and perhaps a pair of binoculars.”
Telescopes can come later as the passion
grows, but while they bring you in for a closeup
look, the grand view gets lost, he said.
And as for the Aug. 21, 2017, total solar eclipse
set to pass over central Grant County? Fiedor is
more than ready for the stellar occasion.
“To have a 75-mile-wide dot of total blackness
pass directly over your home, of all the places on
this large earth, well that makes it special,” he said.
“I can’t wait.”