Astronomy department continues its traditional Evening with the Stars
By Pete Schulte
Special to The Ledger
Dwarf planets like Ceres and Pluto, current space missions and observations of the night sky will all be topics of discussion at the college’s upcoming Evening with the Stars event.
The first of two semiannual events hosted by the college’s astronomy department is scheduled for Saturday, April 25. The event, which has operated for over 30 years, is free and open to the public. Guests are treated to a short commentary on a range of astronomical topics, followed by a viewing session that consists of utilizing the telescopes at the Paul Tebbe Observatory. Topics in the past have ranged from asteroids, doomsday, saving civilization, black holes and the end of the world.
This semester’s event will be led by Doug Patterson, professor of astronomy, and will highlight NASA’s upcoming New Horizons mission as well as its current Dawn Spacecraft Mission. Dawn recently made history by becoming the first spacecraft to achieve an orbit around dwarf planet Ceres.
“I still find it really impressive, really humbling, about how much our own solar system and nearby things continue to surprise us. Every time we go to an object, even if we’ve been there before, we find things that blow our mind … [things] we had no idea we’d ever see,” Patterson said.
The concept of a dwarf planet and Patterson’s thoughts on the meaning will be discussed, as well as Dawn’s discoveries while observing Ceres and what NASA’s upcoming New Horizons mission looks to achieve.
Patterson has been a physics professor at the college since 1993 and has been teaching astronomy since 2000, and one of his favorite reasons for teaching the field is because it’s constantly changing and the fact that he can bring new discoveries and new activity, such as Dawn’s mission, into the classroom.
“This isn’t dead stuff that we’re studying out of some dusty textbook. This is something that is very alive and is changing at the moment,” Patterson said.
In addition to the presentation, viewers can expect to become participants by having a guided look at constellations, deep-sky objects and our closest neighbor, the moon, through telescopes found at the observatory.
Rick Henderson, president of the Astronomical Society of Kansas City, hopes that viewers will make it out to the event. He may even make an appearance himself. “Space is an extension of our natural world. Getting out in the night sky … it’s just beautiful. It’s amazing how many people have not seen the Milky Way galaxy, which is our closest neighbor. You can approach [the space observation] from the pure beauty of it.”
The event begins at 7 p.m. in GEB 233, followed by the observation at the Paul Tebbe Observatory atop the CLB. For more information, contact Professor Patterson at dpatter@jccc.edu or Professor Koch at wkoch@jccc.edu.