Trevor’s Travels: At Lake Arrowhead’s Astronomy Village, things are always looking up – Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
Bidding farewell to Dr. Lorann Parker, president of the Mountain Skies Astronomical Society, I thanked her and said that I had learned more during my hour with her than all the science my teachers had tried to drum into me so many decades ago.
I was only half-joking, as science was yet another subject I struggled with at school. Once again, it was my old bête noire — numbers, and there are lots of them in astronomy.
For instance, distances are often calculated in light-years — in other words, how far light travels in one year. It is said that the speed of light is 670,616,629 miles per hour or 186,282 miles per second. Since there are 31,536,000 seconds in a year — well, you do the math! My head is already starting to ache.
Parker managed my tour of M.S.A.S. Astronomy Village, which is to the west of Rim of the World High School in Lake Arrowhead, without ever going into all the numbers astrophysicists regularly bandy about. She made it very interesting, in fact.
In the lecture room, which is more like a playroom with some chairs in rows to give a sense of order, she handed me a black rock about palm size. It was surprisingly heavy as it had a high concentration of metal.
“This is a true alien,” she said. “It’s part of a meteorite that I collected.”
It was a strange sensation to touch something that had come from somewhere way out there.
M.S.A.S. was founded in 1989 and is a California nonprofit organization. It has a lot of programs to help people understand the complexity of the heavens. For instance, they have a wonderful little complimentary map that shows the layout of the various groupings.
I told her that I knew how to locate the North Star by finding the plow and also Orion, but most of the rest of it was still a mystery. She kindly told me that I was ahead of lots of people with just that knowledge.
Many of the visitors here are children, and I’m sure lots of them have a switch flipped on by Parker’s easy to understand explanations.
There is a shop where you can examine a large variety of astronomical items like telescopes. One recently on display was a 1975 Schmidt Cassegrain 14-inch that was used by society members for years.
The website will tell you of all the exciting events planned for the rest of the year and beyond.
of
At the center of the village is the fiberglass dome that houses the principal telescope — a 16-incher that has been modified from its original design. The dome was made in 1999 in Australia and shipped here to be erected on-site.
The telescope itself sits high up, under a sliding panel that opens to reveal the skies above. City lights below are far enough away to be hidden, and on the Pickering scale it measures 8.5 out of a possible 10 for clarity.
One particularly interesting photo was a slightly fuzzy one of the space shuttle high flying in its orbit — 250 miles above the Earth — so it being a little fuzzy is quite acceptable, I guess.
More travels: 20 years of amazing journeys
Undoubtedly, the information that Parker was able to impart was far more interesting than anything from my old school rooms, which seemed extremely dry by comparison.
The universe is a massive thing and for those not versed in its intricacies, quite intimidating.
On reflection, the most dramatic memory I took away from my visit was holding that space rock in my hand. I shall not forget the experience as it truly was something “out of this world!”
“A Charmed Life” by Trevor Summons is available from amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and other major booksellers. Connect with Trevor via email at trevorsummons@hotmail.com.
Mountain Skies Astronomical Society Astronomy Village
Where: 2001 Observatory Way, Lake Arrowhead
Hours: Call for hours; the gift shop is open 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Fridays
Information: 909-336-1699, mountain-skies.org
