Seeing stars: Southwest Montana Astronomical Society fuels passion for the "final frontier"

Tom McKenna was only a boy when astronaut John Glenn made the nation’s first manned orbit around the earth in 1962, but it left a lasting impression.

By WALT WILLIAMS Chronicle Staff Writer

Now McKenna, 51, is the president of the Southwest Montana Astronomical Society, a group of both amateur and professional astronomers who share a love for all things stellar.

"A lot of folks, including myself, have carried (the love) with them since they were youngsters," he said.

And the skies of southwest Montana have much to offer local stargazers. High altitude, clean air and friendly city ordinances curbing light pollution guarantee some of the best nighttime viewing in the country.

"This is probably one of the last vestiges of undisturbed sky that is left," McKeena said, adding: "It’s very impressive to see the Milky Way as it was originally made."

The Southwest Montana Astronomical Society was founded in 1993 with the assistance of the Museum of the Rockies. It now has around 50 members, largely older stargazers with fond memories of early days of the space age.

The museum provides a venue for the club’s monthly meetings and guest speakers, said Jim Manning, the museum’s planetarium director.

"We also thought an astronomy club could have benefits for the museum and vice versa," he said.

The society provides telescopes and expertise for the museum, which comes in handy during the museum’s annual Astrofair, an event largely focusing on "backyard astronomy."

The club also joins with Montana’s other two astronomy groups to host the Montana Star Watch, an annual outdoor event drawing stargazers across the nation. This year’s star watch will take place in Harley Park in the Little Belt Mountains July 25 to 27.

Backyard astronomy doesn’t require fancy equipment or an intimate knowledge of the sky. The society accepts members of all stripes.

McKenna, a Yellowstone National Park employee in Gardiner, builds his own telescopes, which he uses to take spectacular nighttime pictures, including a 1997 picture of Old Faithful geyser erupting with comet Hale-Bopp shining in the background.

McKenna considers himself a child of the space age, with the memories of America’s first manned flights fueling his passion.

The same is true of Scott Sandness, society vice president and owner of Astro Stuff, a Belgrade business dealing in telescopes and other astronomy items.

Sandness remembers watching the moon landing on TV at age 10, then going outside and telling his parents he could see the astronauts on the moon (he was joking).

But it wasn’t until college that stargazing became his passion.

"I had a roommate who had a telescope," he said. "I started playing with it and I got really hooked."

A high-end telescope costs a $250 at a minimum, with some of the better ones running into the thousands of dollars, he said.

However, a good pair of binoculars that spot objects not visible to the naked eye can run under $100.

But all that wannabe stargazers need is their own eyes, and some clear weather.

Anyone can join the society, which meets the last Friday of each month at the museum. More information can be found on its Web site at http://www.montana.edu/smasweb.

http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2003/06/01/news/astrobzbigs.txt