![]() ![]() It’s nice and warm in the winter and nice and cool in the summer, and I stay away from the moisture problems.” After many frustrating years, I decided to build my own observatory. “You take a telescope outside at night, and the temperature changes. “People get very frustrated with doing astronomy, especially around here,” he said. Then, nine years ago, after dealing with northern Kentucky’s unpredictable and humid nights, Calvert decided to build his own observatory in his backyard. That interest turned into a career-first in photography and then in aviation mechanics-all the while flying private planes for more than three decades. “I went to the school library and got books on stars and planets.” “I have been interested in astronomy and aviation ever since I was in elementary school. “You start to talk about the universe and concepts … kids like to see that and adults do, too.”Ĭountless children have taken that curiosity and developed it into a passion that spills over into their adult life-even so far as to build a personal observatory in their own backyard, as Fred Calvert of Cold Spring has done. When we show them, we like to explain what they’re seeing,” Schrantz said. “We like to show people things through telescopes. Rick Schrantz, the president of the Bluegrass Amateur Astronomy Club (BAAC), said the club members take out their telescopes and share their passion with people living in and around the Lexington area. We go all over the state.”īut the LAS isn’t the only astronomy group in the Commonwealth. At the same time, you’ll find us at Blackacre Nature Preserve, Bernheim Forest and Kentucky state parks. “We also host monthly star parties in Kirby. “This past year (2011) we had 104 sidewalk astronomy events and programs,” he said. But perhaps the best-known get-togethers are the so-called sidewalk astronomy events. “Tom” Sawyer State Park, the LAS Observing Site in Kirby, Ind., and regular meetings at UofL. We’ve got technology here that we can take people right out to the planets.”Īlderson said the society gives stargazers plenty of venues from which to study the night sky, including the LAS Urban Astronomy Center at E.P. “We bring it down to the level of a sixth-grade student so everybody can understand it. “We teach ourselves astronomy so we can share it with other people,” said Ken Alderson, LAS president. ![]() Created in 1933 by University of Louisville professor Walter Lee Moore, the organization is charged with bringing knowledge of the stars to the public any chance it gets. One of the oldest clubs in the United States is the Louisville Astronomical Society (LAS). Astronomy clubs can be found within driving distance of any of the Commonwealth’s borders, offering knowledge of the stars and sharing the science with anyone who expresses interest. Many in Kentucky have been compelled to look upward at night, marvel at the sights and share that sense of wonder. “Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another.” - Plato (427-347 B.C.) ![]()
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