If the Artemis missions have you dreaming of the moon, then head to Brainerd Road for a closer look.<\/p>\n
Baby boomers watched astronauts walk on the moon. Gen Xers grew up watching space shuttle launches. But for millennials like me, the moon landings were ancient history. And our clearest shuttle memories are of the tragedies that ended the program, not the 135 missions that flew safely.<\/p>\n
Thankfully, we are in the middle of a space boom. Astronauts are going back to the moon, NASA plans to have a base there by 2032, and SpaceX has made rocket launches routine. As a result, more and more young folks are looking to the stars.<\/p>\n
In the days after Artemis II, I had similar conversations with several friends. We’d start with the mission, and then talk would drift to space more broadly. Everyone agreed it was an exciting time. Many told me they’d always been interested in space but didn’t know where to start.<\/p>\n
Funny enough, almost all of them mentioned a parent or grandparent who owned a telescope. For a generation raised on moon landings, it was natural to look up. But hardly any of my friends had looked through a scope as an adult. So I’d tell them if they wanted to learn more about the cosmos, there’s a great place to start right here in town, tucked behind Brainerd United Methodist Church. Every time, I got the same reaction: “There’s an observatory and a planetarium in Chattanooga? And it’s free?”<\/p>\n
Yes and yes. Built for public school students during the Depression with Public Works Administration funding, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s Clarence T. Jones Observatory has watched the sky from its hilltop off Brainerd Road since 1938.<\/p>\n
Last fall, I filmed a tour of the observatory for Astronomy magazine and saw how much work goes into keeping it running. Observatory Director Steven Kline; Associate Director Amy Brock-Hon; and Kevin Hon, president of the Barnard Astronomical Society, Chattanooga’s astronomy club; walked me through the building’s history, showed me its 20.5-inch telescope up close and treated me to a private planetarium show.<\/p>\n
The best part is that they’ll do the same for you. Most Sunday evenings during UTC’s school year, the observatory hosts free Star Parties. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the program starts at 7 p.m. Each one is part lecture, part planetarium show and part stargazing. The historic main telescope is being restored right now, but club members often set up telescopes outside for visitors.<\/p>\n
So if Artemis II gave you the space bug, you don’t need an expensive telescope to feed it. Just pay a visit to one of Chattanooga’s best-kept secrets.<\/p>\n
If you go: The observatory is at 10 N. Tuxedo Ave. Use the upper parking lot behind Brainerd United Methodist Church. Check UTC’s website for more details.<\/p>\n
In the Sky: Jupiter disappears<\/p>\n
One of the biggest astronomical events of the year is coming up early Tuesday. Before dawn, the crescent moon will pass directly in front of Jupiter and hide the planet for about an hour. Astronomers call this an occultation, from a Latin word meaning “to conceal.”<\/p>\n
From Chattanooga, Jupiter slips behind the moon at 4:16 a.m. At that point, the moon will be sitting 20 degrees above the eastern horizon (about the height of two fists), so find a spot where ridges and trees won’t block your view. Jupiter pops back out at 5:17 a.m., by which time the moon will be about three fists high. You’ll need binoculars or a telescope to watch Jupiter disappear, but the reappearance will be visible to the naked eye.<\/p>\n
Brooks Mendenhall is a staff writer at Astronomy magazine based in Chattanooga. Reach him at brooks.mendenhall@firecrown.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If the Artemis missions have you dreaming of the moon, then head to Brainerd Road for a closer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-620750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}