Astronomy club works on night moves at ‘star parties’

Members takes a peek through a reflecting telescope. Members of the Astronomical Society of Rowan County held at meeting an star party at Ralph Deal's home on Deal Road. Several members brought their telescopes and powerful binoculars to look at the stars. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Members of the Astronomical Society of Rowan County held at meeting an star party at Ralph Deal's home on Deal Road. Several members brought their telescopes and powerful binoculars to look at the stars. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

A business meeting was in order as members of the Astronomical Society of Rowan County held at star party at Ralph Deal's home on Deal Road. Several members brought their telescopes and powerful binoculars to look at the stars. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Jared Fullam takes a peek through a reflecting telescope. Members of the Astronomical Society of Rowan County held at meeting an star party at Ralph Deal's home on Deal Road. Several members brought their telescopes and powerful binoculars to look at the stars. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Terry Childers takes a peek through a reflecting telescope. Members of the Astronomical Society of Rowan County held at meeting an star party at Ralph Deal's home on Deal Road. Several members brought their telescopes and powerful binoculars to look at the stars. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Members of the Astronomical Society of Rowan County held at meeting an star party at Ralph Deal's home on Deal Road. Several members brought their telescopes and powerful binoculars to look at the stars. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Jared Fullam takes a peek through a pair of binoculars mounted on a heavy tripod. Members of the Astronomical Society of Rowan County held at meeting an star party at Ralph Deal's home on Deal Road. Several members brought their telescopes and powerful binoculars to look at the stars. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

By James Carli II

For the Salisbury Post

You don’t have to be Carl Sagan or Mr. Spock to appreciate the vastness of outer space. It’s big. Mind-blowingly big. And right here in Rowan County is a group of astronomy enthusiasts who enjoy exploring these vast reaches with zeal rivaling that of any Ivy League scientist or Starfleet officer.

The Astronomical Society of Rowan County was founded in the summer of 1981 by retired teacher Ellen Trexler, chemist Grady Withers and photographer Jim Torrence.

This club, which today has about 50 members, originally met at the Margaret Woodson Planetarium at the Horizons Unlimited science museum on Parkview Circle in Salisbury. It now holds regular meetings the last Saturday of every month at the home of sibling members Alice and Ralph Deal, on Deal Road between Enochville and Mooresville.

Members come from all walks of life. Some are teachers, others are students, one is a nuclear engineer and some are retired. The thing that brings all these people together is a love for watching the planets and the stars.

At their most recent meeting, members of the Astronomical Society met at the Deal residence for socializing, to talk about recent astronomical events like the discovery by the Hubble Space Telescope of the oldest object in space ever observed (a galaxy nearly 13 billion years old), and to stargaze.

At this “star party,” as such events are called, member Roger Overcash exclaimed, “Betelgeuse is about to go supernova!” eliciting an animated response from several members. The star, which is pronounced Beetlejuice, is in the Orion constellation and can be seen in the eastern night sky just after sunset.

Before setting up outside, the group discussed important issues facing astronomy and stargazing today, such as light pollution, the leaking of ambient light from populated areas into the night sky. Alice Deal showed off her sack of meteorites, and members Danny Hepler and Barbara Barrier held up a large map of the surface of the moon.

As the sun set, these amateur astronomers set up a number of telescopes and astronomical binoculars in the front yard, and the group of space enthusiasts mingled and wandered from scope to scope, each pointed at different objects in the night sky.

The group’s largest telescope, a 15-inch-diameter lens reflector scope similar to those used in observatories, was pointed at Jupiter much of the night, and peering through the lens, the astronomers could clearly see four of Jupiter’s moons in orbit around the gas giant.

Coming up in June is the club’s 30th anniversary, but Alice Deal said they have yet to firm up any celebratory plans. However member Roger Overcash noted one special event.

“Saturn has been coming up in the mornings,” he said. “But Saturn should be coming up in the evening sky by that time. … Oh, it is totally unreal.”

The Society also holds frequent outreach and educational activities. In 2010, the Astronomical Society of Rowan County was one of only five such clubs in the country to be awarded a replica of Galileo’s original telescope by the Night Sky Network, a NASA-organized association of amateur astronomy clubs, for their extraordinary outreach efforts.

Frequently, the Astronomical Society works with local Cub Scout and Boy Scout organizations, visits Carolina Mall in Concord for its “Moon over the Mall” events, and sets up with school groups to show kids and adults alike the interesting things that can be seen simply by looking through a telescope.

On the evening of March 3, the Astronomical Society will be setting up at Patriots Elementary School in Concord for just such an event.

Society members hope to spark the same fascination that has drawn Ralph Deal, who serves as the club’s public relations officer, to the stars since he was a child.

“I get so much enjoyment out of thinking about what the universe holds,” he said. “I saw Sputnik, and it helped me get my mind off my epilepsy.”

He said nearly every member of the Astronomical Society owns a telescope, but that is not a prerequisite for joining the club or participating in club activities. The club has six telescopes to share, including one large homemade 15-inch-lens reflector telescope similar to those found in observatories.

And through those telescopes, society member Steve Romanek said, “You always see different stuff. (Looking at) the moon, a plane flies in front. A black spot on Jupiter and you know a moon is traversing.”

He added that space is full of wonder, that it is only the next frontier, not the last.

Membership dues for the Astronomical Society of Rowan County are $15 per person, or $25 for a family. For more information about the organization, visit www.astrowan.org.

James Carli II is a freelance writer who lives in Salisbury.