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Night Vision

The Duke Teaching Observatory offers free, public open houses every other Friday during the academic year

At first glance, the grassy slope about three miles from campus doesn't look like much just a big field with 10 waist-high metal piers sticking out of the ground. The piers are actually electrical hookups where portable telescopes can be set up; the wide clearing allows an ample view of the night sky, while trees on the horizon block out ambient city light.

 

It's not a fancy observatory. Its main purpose is not high-level research, but introducing both Duke students and people in the community to the joys of stargazing, says Ronen Plesser, an associate professor of physics who runs public outreach programs there.

"When people get to see meteor showers, or Saturn's rings or the moon's craters, there are usually ‘oohs' and ‘aahs.' That's the real payoff," Plesser says. "One of the coolest things here is you get a second-grader and her mom and they're both seeing Saturn's rings for the first time and they're both freaking out together."

OBSERVATORY OPEN HOUSE TIPS

 

  • Wear appropriate clothing and shoes for walking in the woods.
  • Always check the website before you go; cloudy skies could mean a last-minute cancellation.
  • Watch for deer when driving after dark.
  • Turn off headlights and flashlights when you arrive so stargazers may adjust to night vision.
  • Hobby astronomers are welcome to connect their own telescopes to the observatory's power supply. But all visitors need to bring is their "curiosity, imagination and sometimes some patience."
  • Lawn chairs and blankets can be handy, especially for meteor showers.

 

 

Fall Open-House Dates

 

Times are one hour after sunset unless otherwise noted.

 

Oct. 5, Oct. 19, Nov. 2, Nov. 16, Nov. 30, Dec. 14

 

 

 

For directions, specific starting times and up-to-date calendar information, always consult the Duke Teaching Observatory website.

Plesser holds a free, public open house at the Duke Teaching Observatory roughly every other Friday during the school year. In August, about 50 people came out to see the Perseid meteor shower, one of the flashiest night sky events of the year.

 

Michael Gillespie, a Duke professor of philosophy and political science, was among them. Although there are other places to look at the stars, he said the Duke Forest location is handy for folks in Durham.

 

"We sometimes go to the one at UNC that the Morehead Planetarium runs. It is right on [Jordan] lake, so you get a good view, but it's a long way to drive. This is much closer," Gillespie says.

 

Duke researcher Mike Mani, Trinity '06, also came out to view the meteors.

 

"It's my first time. It's amazing. I went to Duke as an undergrad, but I actually didn't know about the observatory," Mani says.

 

Plesser loves introducing children and families to astronomy. To be kid-friendly, stargazing at the observatory's open house begins one hour after sunset. For the past several years, Plesser's 10-year-old son Michael has assisted his dad with the two-person operation.

 

"I went once and I liked it, so I kept going," says the fifth-grader. "You get to see a lot of galaxies and stars and it's fun and I just enjoy looking at them."

 

Plesser initiated the construction of the $30,000 facility in 2002 and received funding from Duke for the project. Classes from local schools visit the observatory and are able to use the 10-inch telescopes. The Chapel Hill Amateur Observation Society also uses the site for some of its meetings. And, a few times a year, Plesser loads the telescopes (powered by C-cell batteries) into his Suburban to do outreach programs as far away as Rocky Mount and Lumberton.

 

"A large part of the original motivation was to do outreach, because we realized that this was a way to get people excited," he says.

 

For years the father of five had taken his children's elementary school classes to the roof of the physics department, where the old observatory was located. But the telescopes there were dilapidated and safety was a concern, so with help from Duke Forest staff, Plesser scouted out the current site. The new observatory suffers less light pollution, yet it is still close enough to campus for students in astronomy classes to use it as a lab. Duke doesn't have an astronomy department, but Plesser uses the telescopes in an introductory course for non-science majors offered through the physics department.

 

"We identify stars and look at galaxies. That's the cool part of the class," Plesser says. "It's an exciting class to teach. It's really a field where we're just starting to make new discoveries."

 

Mani, the recent Duke graduate, says he recommends it to current students who want a peaceful place to take a break from the college scene.

 

Plesser agrees and says he hopes that more area residents as well as members of the Duke community will come to an open house. Not only is the program interesting, it might come in handy, he says: Once he got lost in Amsterdam and used the North Star to navigate safely back to his hotel.

"I want people to know about this place and come out and use it," Plesser says. "Constellations are like friends you can take with you; you see the same stars wherever you go. That's one of the fun things about learning about astronomy."