Stars highly visible in winter atmosphere

As the autumn weather turns crisp and memories of July’s fireworks begin to fade, students can still find beauty in the skies any clear night.

Stargazing will be at its peak in the coming months of fall and winter because of simple atmospheric changes.

“Winter nights are better because the air is drier,” said physics professor Glen Williams.

The observatory will host an open session for students to use the telescope from 8 to 10 p.m. Monday in the Brooks Hall Observatory.

Moisture can cause interference in attempting to observe remote celestial bodies through the Earth’s atmosphere.

But not only is the view getting clearer, there are several fascinating objects at their peak viewing conditions right now and will be in coming weeks.

“We generally find that the winter sky has a lot of interesting things to look at,” Williams said. “Still visible now is the Ring Nebula. That’s an impressive sight.”

He said the Orion nebula, Saturn and Venus are all worth looking for.

“Right now, if you get a clear night, Jupiter is up, very bright. I have a fun time looking at Jupiter and (its) moons,” said Beverly Hills senior Rachael Tomasino. “Andromeda is a pretty popular one.”

Her senior Honors project focuses on astronomy. She designed a slitless spectrograph with Williams’ help to analyze the elemental composition of distant stars.

Unfortunately, she and every other astronomer who relies on terrestrial equipment can only observe on clear nights, which do not happen too often during Michigan winters.

“The nights are good when you get them,” Tomasino said.

Open Skies

The Brooks Astronomical Observatory was opened on top of Brooks Hall in 1964 along with the hall itself. But it is not only for use by physics majors — monthly open houses have been held since 1976.

“It’s open to everyone, even if you’ve never heard of astronomy before,” Tomasino said.

Open house attendees can take turns looking through the main telescope itself, where sights such as Saturn’s rings and a detailed view of the Moon’s surface can be observed.

The observation deck on top of Brooks also is opened for these nights. Along the deck, smaller telescopes are often set up oriented toward interesting astronomical sights.

“Everyone should come, even if it’s cloudy,” Tomasino said, and mentioned that the view of campus at night from four stories up is worth the trip.