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Star Parties: Astronomy Buffs Mix Science and Socializing
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15169 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
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4 / 1989 |
1,470 Words |
| Author
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Kay Marie Porterfield
Kay Marie Porterfield, a Denver writer, is the author of four
books on substance abuse and family relationships. |
Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven,
Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the
angels.
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Evangeline, 1847
Star parties! Not gatherings with hors d'oeuvres, Paul Newman, and small talk. Rather, clear nights, telescopes, and amateur astronomers are what celestial clubs are all about. Whether composed of a handful of Denverites meeting near the local missile site or hundreds of Texans who flock to Fort Davis, Texas, for an annual weeklong rally, stargazing associations are shining with popularity.
Why astronomy? "We human beings have always seemed to be naturally curious about the funny lights over our heads in the night sky ever since we were kids," says Leif Robinson, editor of Sky & Telescope. Today, an estimated four hundred thousand amateur astronomers in the United States and Canada echo his sentiments.
Long before the advent of telescopes, the Mayans of Central America regarded the planet Venus as a god, and built their temples to mark its movements. Monolithic stone alignments erected in Britain and northern Europe two thousand years before the birth of Christ traced the rising and setting of the sun and moon and the paths of the bright stars. The ancient Athenians oriented the Parthenon with the rising Pleiades, a galactic star cluster named after seven mythological nymphs.
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