‘Stars Over Girdwood’ Astronomy Community Class begins

By John Gallup

TNews Contributor

One of the advantages to the end of summer is the arrival of the Astronomy season!

We have a window of time in the fall from about the 3rd week in September through mid November when it is finally dark enough early enough, but it’s still reasonably warm to be outside.

In addition, the atmosphere can be stable enough to provide what astronomers call “good seeing,” that is, a clear view through the telescope without a lot of the wobble which is common this far north, and in the mountains.

There are several good night sky apps for your devices, either free or cheap, just aim your phone up and the app will show you the constellations and name the stars, planets if present, and anything else of note in the view you select. Teach yourself the night sky!

We will be offering the Community School class “Stars over Girdwood” again for those interested in taking a look at what’s up there. Featured this fall will be a good look at Saturn in the evening sky, the Andromeda Galaxy, a couple of planetary nebulas and a few globular clusters.

So what are these things? Sign up and find out! Call out will be by text message on most clear nights.

A warning: there may be as few as three or four nights which fit this description, so you might have to be prepared to forego doing something else to enjoy the night sky. Or it could be clear for a month!