Seeing Stars with the Science Challenge Club

Last night, Anthony, nine of the members of our science challenge club, and I made the long trek from Flushing to the Upper West Side and Columbia University. Our goal was to use the telescopes at the free public viewing to get closer to the stars and the moon. As we started out from school around 4:30, the skies did not look like they were going to cooperate. A hazy layer of clouds obscured the stars, but we still had hope as the light of the moon, though diffuse, could clearly be seen as we descended into the subway.

When we emerged from the one train at 116th Street at Columbia around 7:00, temperatures had dropped into the low thirties, but the clouds had mostly disappeared, and a clear night awaited us. After a short lecture entitled "From Protons to Planets to Penguins," we and about 120 other New York star-gazers made our way to the 15th floor of the Astronomy building and the telescopes. We gazed at the moon through the large domed telescope, then retreated to the open air of the New York City night where we were treated to a skyline of New Jersey and the Hudson River. Even better than the earthly vista were our telescopically enhanced views of the moon and the star cluster nebula, the Pleiades.

Tonight reminded me of the cold nights I would spend in my backyard growing up with my long telescope. I recall the faintly bright rings of Saturn, the reddish hue of a lunar eclipse, and the previously unseen stars too dim to see with the naked eye. Space made me feel very small then, but it made everything around me feel much more important. I can't wait until next semester when Flushing International gets its own telescope courtesy of Anthony's hard work and Columbia University. I'm looking forward to having more nights like this with our insipid explorers of the cosmos (i.e. the eager students of our school).