Southern Vermont Astronomy (SoVerA) will be hosting a four-part mini-series at the Whiting Library on four consecutive Fridays at the Whiting Library in Chester, Vermont starting March 24th. Each program will begin at 6PM. If the skies cooperate after any one of the presentations, binoculars and telescopes will be set up for the participating audience to observe some of the celestial wonders our Vermont skies provide. SoVerA members Rick Bates, Rick Hunter and Claudio Véliz will be providing a little of the intrigue astronomy inspires, while imparting some of the knowledge which can help us appreciate some of its mysterious aspects.
Rick Hunter will begin to answer the question: “How can we really start to know anything about what at first glance appears as only some very small, quite faint (few exceptions: planets, moon and sun) dots in the night sky?” As recently as 1840 August Comte, a French philosopher, said nothing could ever be known about the composition of the stars. Meanwhile, Joseph von Fraunhofer had, about 30 years before, already laid the groundwork of spectroscopy, as well as building some of the best refracting telescopes to that time. In 1838 Friedrich Bessell was able to find the first accurate distance to a nearby star. The work of these two began the process of classifying stars, finding their distances, brightnesses, sizes, and makeup. It’s another one of those famous “detective stories’ ‘ in science, with a fascinating cast of characters! Distance is the “perpetrator,” scientists the sleuths.