MUNCIE, Ind - Walking into Minnetrista Museum & Gardens around dusk is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The stars begin to show while the sun's faint orange glow disappears beyond the skyline. For many of the people attending the astronomy club meeting, this is a normal sight.
In the Cantina room at Minnetrista, former neurosurgeon Gautam Phookan speaks on the southern hemisphere and constellations found there. Phookan is the President of the club and found his love for astronomy during COVID-19.
“Well, I always had an interest in the night sky, and typically I’d travel a lot. But during COVID I couldn’t travel a lot, so I thought I would travel into the skies. That’s how I fell in love with it,” said Phookan.
Phookan, as well as outreach coordinator Dan Malone, spoke on the power of telescopes and astrophotography. Astrophotography is just one specific example of the many different ways you can get into astronomy. Former club president Chris O’Brien shared.
“There's a lot of different aspects of astronomy, we do visual astronomy, you can do what we call armchair astronomy. Where you read about astronomy. And now we do astrophotography. And by mixing it up, doing all these different things, it's a hobby that can keep you busy your entire lifetime,” said O’Brien
The club plans to host multiple events from now into the summer. These include stargazing nights, workshops and monthly club meetings.
If interested, visit Muncie Astronomy Club on Facebook.
Contact Braylon Judy with comments at braylon.judy@bsu.edu
