Posted on 01/29/2006 5:23:37 PM PST by neverdem
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TUPPER LAKE, N.Y. -- High altitude, low population and little light pollution make the Adirondacks a stargazer's dream location. Look up from New York's northern forest and with the naked eye watch a cascade of stars. With a good telescope, see the rings of Saturn in color.
Subzero winter nights are particularly good, with low humidity and clear, magnified skies, amateur astronomer Mark Staves said. That's when he likes to take his telescope outside in Tupper Lake.
Staves, fellow amateur astronomer Tim Moeller and other enthusiasts plan to build the first public observatory in New York's northern mountains to expand the stargazing audience.
The not-for-profit Adirondack Public Observatory in its first year has raised about $40,000 toward a $500,000 goal, according to board members. They have chosen a site in Tupper Lake, about 110 miles north of Albany. The parcel, at 1,600 feet in elevation, overlooks the town beach and campground at Little Wolf Pond.
"We are in what's called a dark puddle here," Staves said, noting the contrast in nighttime satellite images of the Earth. "We can actually see the Milky Way, which is something you can't actually see most places now."
An observatory site was offered near the Natural History Museum of the Adirondacks, scheduled to open this summer on the other side of the village of Tupper Lake, but there was too much light pollution from nearby Sunmount hospital, said Jan Wojcik, observatory board member.
Board members are considering a telescope with a 16- to 20-inch aperture, more powerful than the one at Clarkson University in Potsdam, where Wojcik is a humanities professor and observatory director.
They expect to spend about $20,000 for the instrument.
"You could make out detail in distant galaxies," Wojcik said. "You could see craters on the moon that look so detailed you could almost imagine climbing down the walls and walking across."
At California's Palomar Observatory, the comparable 18-inch Schmidt Telescope, first operational in 1936 and now retired from research, was used to discover nearly 50 comets, including Shoemaker-Levy 9 in 1993. By contrast, Caltech's Hale Telescope, considered the world's largest until 1993, has a 200-inch aperture.
Meanwhile, Tupper Lake's municipal utility is replacing old street lights with recessed fixtures that aim beams downward to reduce local light pollution.
"Eventually it'll save the village money," said former Mayor Sandra Strader, "and once we knew the observatory was going to happen, we decided it would help them also."
Staves, 43, observatory president, grew up in Tupper Lake and works as a utility lineman. He says the clarity of the night sky has diminished somewhat since he started looking through a telescope as a boy, likely degraded by more light pollution, including some from Montreal.
The Adirondack Park Agency, which regulates development inside the 6-million-acre park, considers exterior lighting plans before approving building permits, spokesman Keith McKeever said. Permit conditions include full cut-off outdoor fixtures that direct light downward and motion detectors to shut lights off automatically.
While some Adirondack municipalities that issue building permits are new to the technology, Wojcik said satellite pictures of the region at night still show marked contrast. "Our place, the park, is one of the few dark places in the country. Hardly any light makes it far enough for the satellite to pick up."
The observatory, which organizers hope to complete in three to five years, is planned to have a domed building with the large telescope, imaging equipment and a digital camera, which would be used for research and education and could be connected to the natural history museum's theater during significant celestial events, Staves said.
It would have a second building for public viewing, with other telescopes and a roll-off roof, and a control center with a classroom, computers and quarters for visiting students.
"On most clear evenings, it'll be open and people can come in and learn about basic astronomy and learn a few of the constellations," Staves said.
Enthusiasts already gather for "star parties" around the Adirondacks.
"Anybody shows up," Wojcik said. "You can look at any number of telescopes. ... Different scopes focus on different things. Usually there's a line behind each one."
BTTT
When I was much younger I remember going off on a camping trip and seeing the Milky Way for what it really was.
That's near where I lived when I learned the stars. Actually haven't seen the stars in over 30 years since astronomy in Alaska particularly sucks.
Why is that? Part of the year its night all day, isn't it?
I lived there for a while, it is beautiful, absolutely beautiful
Very interesting. If there's an Adirondack ping list, add me to it. We go to the Central Adirondacks every summer. My husband's father was born on Saranac Lake. The only place I've seen more stars at night was when I visited my brother in Kaslo, BC, Canada.
The atmosphere is always murky and it is never dark, not dark like astronomers need it. We rarely see any star dimmer than mag 4.
I know another REALLY good place, but I'm not tellin'
Says who.
I spent my summers in the Adirondacks, Schroon Lake, boys camp on the Sacandaga Reservoir in Northville, and my brother has a house on 13th Lake. It's an absolutely beautiful area.I'm in Maine now, and saved up to buy a camp in the Belgrade Lakes area. Same feeling when looking at the stars on a summer night, with no lights on. Rejuvinates my belief in the Almighty.
I never realized that. Thank you.
Possibly New Mexico? I never knew what the Milky Way was until I came out here. I've run small mammal traps in the star light which would actually cast a light shadow on the ground.
I've been through the Adirondacks but unfortunately never had the opportunity to do any star gazing there.
Muleteam1
Love the Adirondacks have camped at Eighth Lake near Inlet, beautiful skies of course. But I will note that since my daughter got into stargazing, we have enjoyed the Milky Way and dark clear nights in the Poconos, along the shore at Bar Harbor Maine (in summer season) and I've been dazzled by the night sky at some of the first campgrounds in Southern New York State. There's a county in NorthEastern Pennsylvania that gets write ups because of clear dark skies and some open fields where astronomers congregate. The Adirondacks are a special place, I'm just saying don't despair, there are still lots of dark places where the night sky is stunning.
I love the Adirondacks, but I'm kind of surprised to see it described as a "stargazer's paradise." I've always been under the impression that the Adirondack region has too much cloudy weather to be an ideal spot for stargazers.
When it's vacant, guess who gets to escape to there? LOL
I'm still a smoker (also an amnesiac) and often step out to the deck from the bedroom for a cancer stick in the middle of the night.
It's amazing for a city dweller like me, so used to so few twinkles, but the clarity of the sky and stars is both shocking and spectacular.
I just lie down in a beach chair, suck on my burning ciggie, and stare up at the sky in the full horizontal position. Makes me wish I had grown up somewhere that I could have learned to recognize all the stars I can see.
I think you could see by pure starlight alone up there, moon or no moon. I'm sure many of the native wildlife can see by starlight, as there are still lots of noises in the woods at 3 AM.
It's nice to be out in the boonies, but I've lived my whole life in cities and am not sure I could give up with city life, despite the beauty of starlight.
bookmk ping
That was my impression as well.
Try Mt Pinos near LA.
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