Astronomers explore new frontiers while attempting to solve heavenly mysteries While the tragedy of the recent shuttle explosion put a damper on the nation’s rap idly-growing space explora tion program, it did not extin guish the national fascination with the world beyond. Man continues to strive for a better glimpse of the heav ens, a better understanding of the macrocosm in which our microcosm exists. Dr. Roger Smith, associate professor of physics, offers some insight on where the study of astronomy is headed. He says that ad vanced technology will soon allow astronomers to take a sharper look into space with minimal distortion. “One of the things that’s going to happen in the next few years is that the space telescope will go up, shuttle permitting,” Smith explains. “That should be quite inter esting because that will be the first telescope of any real con sequence that’s up outside the earth’s atmosphere. We won’t be faced with the dis tortion caused by the earth’s atmosphere, or the pollution caused by city light sources. ” Another area of devel opment is the study of radio astronomy. Smith says astro nomers are able to take mea surements of celestial objects from observatories in differ ent parts of the world at the same time. They then can combine the tapes taken from the various locations, ef fectively giving them a radio “telescope” the size of the earth. “The advantage of having a telescope that big is that it gives you very good resolu tion,” Smith explains, “so you can use the radio tele scope to look at quasars and objects that are extremely far away and see what their structures are like. ” Ironically, it is through this futuristic study of space that man can best explore the past. By examining the struc tures of these distant objects, Smith says astronomers are learning more about the ori gins of the universe because the light from such distant ob jects was actually emitted bil lions of years ago. OK, so you’re finally con vinced that the moon is not made of cheese. And you no longer believe in the man in the moon either. Congratulations, you've grown up and joined the real world. Now take a step backwards. No, don’t start looking for cows in the sky, but do feel free to let your imagination roam as you gaze at the stars. Look for comets, quasars and constella tions. Now you’ve joined the world of amateur astronomy. It’s a brave new world, but not a very well-developed one in this part of the state. Texas A&M has no astronomy pro gram to speak of, and offers only the bare minimum in as tronomy classes. However, the university does operate an observatory (with a dome and everything), and the few astronomy classes that are offered are always filled to ca pacity. In the popular basic astron omy class, listed as Physics 306, students study the basic prop erties of light, the life cycle of stars, the origin and future of the universe, and the planets. And in the lab section of that course, Physics 307, students meet at the observatory (lo cated near Easterwood Airport) and learn how to set up the ob servational equipment, how to use star charts in order to locate objects in the sky, and how to find celestial bodies without the star charts. But Dr. Roger Smith, asso ciate professor of physics and the man responsible for running the astronomy courses, says that there isn’t anyone in the department who is really a gen uine astronomer. He adds that there isn’t any astronomical re search conducted here, either. Nevertheless, an active group of telescope-toting indi viduals in the Bryan/College Station vicinity sponsors a myr iad of galaxy-gazing activities throughout the year. The Association of Amateur Astronomers is composed of about 60 members from all walks of life. Vice president Laurie Hazen says anyone in terested in astronomy can join the local club. “We’ve got students, house wives, business people, teach ers, older members — from age 12 on up,” Hazen says. “We’ve just got a little bit of everybo- dy.” Hazen says she is definitely “the amateur among ama teurs. ” But she took a liking to star-gazing, and got involved in the association. “I’ve always enjoyed watch ing the stars — thinking, dream ing about what’s out there,” Hazen explains. She says the club offers budding astro nomers a low-cost means of ex ploring the heavens. The club owns telescopes which members can take turns borrowing, and has its own ob servation site about 30 miles north of Bryan in Cause. The association also publishes a monthly newsletter called Pul sar that includes information on current astronomical activities, as well as other feature articles and a list of astronomical terms. Four times a year, the asso ciation sponsors Community Star Night at the Southwood Athletic complex. Members set up 8-, 10- and 12-inch tele scopes and then stick around to point out various celestial points of interests to anyone in the community who cares to stop by and take a peek. Hazen says turnout for the quarterly event is usually good, ranging from 35 on a cloudy summer night to more than 2,000 when Halley’s comet was in view. Members also help teach astronomy classes in the local junior high schools. In addition to bringing as tronomy to the Bryan/College Station community, the Asso ciation of Amateur Astronomers also offers many benefits to its members. The club features speakers at its monthly meetings, which are open to the public. At the next meeting, on Nov. 21, Paul Tor- race from the National Aero nautics and Space Administra tion will speak on current planetary studies at NASA. The association also operates a library which members have free access to, and Hazen says it is in the process of compiling a video library, as well. Doug McGregor, a graduate student in electrical engineering and association member, tea ches free classes in astrophoto- graphy to his fellow amateur as tronomers. Hazen says that club mem bers like to have a good time, too. She says members discov ered, much to their amazement, that local restaurants will deliver pizza to the A&M observatory. This fact was confirmed, she says, after their September monthly meeting, when club members had a rather untradi- tional pizza party on the roof of the observatory. If you’re interested in doing some star-gazing yourself and would like to join the Associa tion of Amateur Astronomers, you can contact Laurie Hazen at 693-4151.