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Virginia’s
Stargazers
If
it is true that our earliest inhabitants named Virginia’s
great valley, Shenandoah, or “daughter of the
stars,” then our natives have been looking skyward
for a long time. Recently, when astronomers
announced the discovery that nearby stars may have
planets orbiting them, we began to wonder about the
formal and informal stargazers in our own backyard.
As
with many other Old Dominion firsts, formal
stargazing in Virginia may have begun with Thomas Jefferson. The intrepid
man of science was working on plans for an
observatory a year after he founded the
University
of
Virginia
in 1819. In 1823, he converted an unoccupied
building on his new university campus into a
building for astronomical observations. Although he
prepared architectural plans for a true observatory
on a nearby mountain and construction actually
began, the first authentic observatory on the UVa
campus dates from 1885. Dedicated on April 13,
Thomas Jefferson’s birthday, it was housed in what
was then the largest refracting telescope in an
educational institution. It had a 26¼-inch
lens made by the finest glass work and lens crafting
firm at the time.
The
Leander McCormick Observatory – named for
benefactor and UVA alum McCormick – still operates
today. Twice a month, visitors can view celestial
objects through the historic refractor as well as
two smaller telescopes.
David
Maness, director of astronomy at the
Virginia
Living
Museum
in
Newport
News,
believes it is impossible to know how many
observatories are spread across the Commonwealth
today. In addition to UVa, which has a modern
observatory on
Fan
Mountain
with a number of state-of-the-art telescopes,
William and Mary, Randolph-Macon and
Tidewater
Community
College
are among college and universities that operate
teaching observatories. Many high schools throughout
the state have observatories, as well.
Then
there are amateur astronomy groups, such as the
Langley Skywatchers who operate an observatory on
the Langley NASA grounds in Hampton
where the original Mercury Seven astronauts trained. In
fact, there are at least nine amateur sky-gazing
groups spread across the state from the Roanoke
Valley Astronomical Society in Fincastle to the Back
Bay Amateur Astronomers in Virginia
Beach.
Many of their members operate backyard
observatories.
Such
groups have been the movers and shakers behind the
“dark sky” movement – the effort to reduce
light pollution at night. Light pollution refers to
the effect of artificial lights from public
buildings, light poles, lighted billboards, etc. on
the night sky. Such groups encourage more
environmental friendly lighting designs on public
buildings or the turning off of lights during
certain night hours.
Several
studies have found that light pollution affects more
that star-gazing. It may also affect animal and
plant behavior, reports Odyssey
magazine (“A Light Pollution Study Near You,”
March 2005). For example, birds blinded by lights in
high-rises have become confused and flown into
windows.
In
Virginia,
the Washington
Post recently reported that several of
Virginia’s
counties, Albemarle, Fauquier, Loudoun and Warren,
have either proposed or implemented light-pollution
restrictions. (“Let There Be Light – But Not Too
Much,”
January
8, 2005).
Some
amateur astronomers, though, may take dark sky
tactics to extremes. A member of the
Roanoke
group suggests that other members may want to change
their car dome light to red. Then, opening car doors
would not disturb those peering through their scopes
at the group’s Star Parties at nearby Cahas
Mountain.
But,
for those who prefer their star-gazing in comfort,
we have the observatory’s cousin, the planetarium.
There are at least five full-fledged varieties,
including the Virginia
Living
Museum’s
planetarium in Newport
News,
as well as the Science Museum of Western
Virginia’s planetarium in Roanoke.
We suspect, just as with amateur observatories,
there are many more rookie planetariums in the state
as well.
Jefferson,
one of the Old Dominion’s earliest stargazers,
would be pleased.
NEXT:
Virginia’s
Epidemics
--
March 28, 2005
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