NYC’s amateur astronomers can now check out the skies — and telescopes — at Brooklyn Public Library
Going in to space is becoming more affordable, but checking out the cosmos is free for amateur astronomers in Brooklyn who have a library card and a sense of wonder.
On Wednesday, the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York welcomes the public to visit the Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza and learn how to use a telescope and what to look for once they have one. After that, five telescopes will be made available for check-out, just like library books, to those who want to explore new worlds.
Association president Brian Berg tells the Daily News that he’s excited to kick off his organization’s new initiative at 4 p.m., and even expects a little “bruising” of the new equipment on loan.
“This is for people who maybe never owned a telescope and don’t know how to use it,” he said.
He and fellow volunteers plan to show the uninitiated what to look through, what to look at and what to avoid — like the sun, for instance. He says that “without a doubt” a new space age is among us and he invites everyone to get with the program.
“More and more people are taking this up,” he said. “More people are staying home, more people have left the cities.”
According to Berg, quieter cities and rural areas mean “more dark” skies where star-watchers can see what’s above them at night.
Berg also thinks that despite the criticism they may get, moneybags moguls such as Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have introduced a new era of exploration by launching civilians and celebs like William Shatner into space.
“I’ll defend the billionaires,” he said. “They democratize (space travel).”
He explains a sort of “trickle down” where billionaires have begun building space crafts in which millionaires can travel. Eventually, he believes adventurers with $100,000 to spend, then $10,000 to blow, will be able to look down on the Earth from inside a commercial space vessel.
But for now, getting an eyeful of stars, planets and space activity is a fun and educational look at where we’re headed and literally what we’re made from as a species.
“We’re all space stuff,” he said.
He also thinks it’s important the Amateur Astronomers Association and Brooklyn Public Library system have teamed up in the heart of the borough — at the central branch near the base of Prospect Park — to introduce astronomy to a diverse mix of New Yorkers.
“The people in the more affluent neighborhoods, if they want a telescope they can buy one,” he said.
While there’s a lot of fun stuff to be seen in space, Berg can think of a few things that blow people’s minds.
“The thing that brings out the biggest reaction from someone first looking through a telescope is seeing Saturn,” he said. “The rings don’t look real.”
That showstopper, he claims, literally gets novices to come out from behind the lens.
“They go around to the front of the telescope to see if someone put a picture there,” Berg said.
Explaining to newcomers that they are looking at lights that may have taken three years to reach the Earth is also said to be a mind-blowing experience. He also likes people to know that a lot of the technology we have on Earth, like the MRI technology used in hospitals, stemmed from figuring out ways to navigate and understand the cosmos.
“It’s in human DNA to explore,” Berg said.
