Have You Ever Looked at the Night Sky Through a Telescope?

Light pollution is when man made light shines up into the sky and diminishes our view. It is why you can’t see the Milky Way from most of Nassau County. There are some dark places where you can see lots of stars but they are few in Nassau County and a bit more in Suffolk County. The south shore is generally a good place, looking out over the ocean. You can even see the Milky Way from Robert Moses State Park, but it isn’t easy.

Even in heavily light polluted skies you can usually see the Moon and a few planets when they are up. By up, I mean above the horizon and visible to us from where we are on the Earth. Since the Moon orbits the Earth, about half the time it isn’t visible from any one place on the Earth. The planets orbit the Sun just like the Earth, so there are times when each planet is on the same side of the Sun as the Earth and so visible to us from Earth. There are other times when each planet is on the side of the Sun opposite from the Earth and so not visible from the Earth.

The Moon is spectacular in a telescope. Looking at the Moon as it goes through its phases during each month is really amazing. Oddly, the Full Moon is not the best for seeing it. The crescent and gibbous Moon phases are better as the angled light from the Sun reflecting off the Moon creates shadows which gives a sense of depth. The Full Moon washes out the shadows and, though bright, there is no sense of depth. Not only are there craters on the Moon, there are also mountains and cliffs which become more visible when they cast shadows.

Jupiter and Saturn are magnificent through a telescope. Jupiter with its bands and four Galilean moons never ceases to amaze me and Saturn with its rings is just too beautiful for words. When they are up, these planets appear to be relatively bright stars to the naked eye, but with even a small, but good quality, telescope they are seen in all their glory.

Venus and Mars are also readily visible when they are up. Again, they appear to be bright stars to the naked eye. Venus is completely cloud covered so it reflects the Sun’s light very well and can be very bright. It goes through phases just like the Moon which can be seen through a telescope. Mars is a bit more challenging but it’s reddish hue can be seen through a telescope and, in really good conditions, you can see it’s polar ice cap.

Mercury can be seen but is a bit tricky as it is always close to the Sun and, since it is the smallest planet, it is harder to see. Uranus and Neptune are very hard to see. In fact, they appear as almost points of light (actually very small disks) and are hard to distinguish from any background stars.

If you want to see the night sky through a telescope on Long Island, look for opportunities through the following:

• Amateur Observers’ Society of New York (aosny.org), a Nassau County astronomy club
• Facebook page: Sidewalk Astronomy in Lynbrook (facebook.com/SidewalkAstronomyinLynbrook)
• Facebook page: Long Island Space and Astronomy (facebook.com/LongIslandSpaceandAstronomy)
• Custer Institute & Observatory (custerobservatory.org) an observatory in Southold
• Astronomical Society of Long Island (asliclub.org), a Suffolk County astronomy club

Or maybe you can borrow a telescope from your local library, if you live in Lynbrook, Floral Park, Rockville Centre, Bellmore, Wantagh, Island Trees, Syosset or North Bellmore.

For more info on Library Telescope Programs see Facebook Page: Library Telescope (facebook.com/LibraryTelescope) and www.LibraryTelescope.org