Hobby becomes passion for stargazers

Stargazing children may often grow up to be astronomers, but Keith Snyder discovered his love for the stars as an adult.

In 1989, his brother-in-law took out a telescope. What Snyder saw that night became his passion.

"I looked at the moon, I looked at Jupiter and I looked at Saturn," he said. "I thought, 'Wow, I've got to do this."

Now a volunteer who keeps things running at the Sola Fide Observatory, Snyder continues to build upon his experience, mixing old knowledge with new technology.

Huge telescopes and fancy accessories do not need to intimidate the ordinary observer. Snyder said getting a feel for the hobby can be a very inexpensive experience.

"The nice thing about the hobby is you make it as simple or as hard as you want to," he said. "Which makes it as cheap or expensive as you want."

Snyder recommends taking it slowly. He said to start out with a dark place to sit with a star wheel, which you can turn to show the locations of stars on particular dates and times. Get to know the constellations and major stars in the sky, he said. Before moving to a telescope, try a pair of binoculars first.

The more you observe, the better your understanding of the sky and the greater your appreciation for it, he said.

Although Snyder uses a computer to help him locate certain stars, he is glad he learned to do it on his own first. Hours looking at constellations gave him a familiarity with the sky that adds to the experience. He said he can find particular stars without the technological help.

"What I've done for 12 years is know the sky well enough to know where it (an individual star) is," he said.

However, the gear is pretty cool. If you want to see the sky through a good-sized telescope, the observatory offers people that opportunity.

"You get aperture fever," he said. "The bigger thing you've got, the more you can see."

Bill Elsbury of Mason City, Iowa, has been interested in astronomy for about 55 years.

While Snyder sets his sights further out, on distant stars, Elsbury studies things closer to home like the moon and nearby planets in his personal observatory. Elsbury said there is such a variety of subjects, you can always find something new. Amateurs, he said, often discover new comets and asteroids.

"With the technology there is, it's almost unlimited what a fellow can do," he said.

You can learn a lot talking with amateur astronomers, and a great opportunity to do that is coming up July 25-26.

The 12th annual star party at the Sola Fide Observatory will take place both nights, and Snyder and Elsbury will be there. Snyder said there is usually between 15 and 20 telescopes in the field in front of the observatory during the star party, and the owners love to talk about their passion.

"That's what they do," he said. "They like to show people things and talk with them."

It starts at 9 p.m. both nights, but as long as it is dark, you will not be too late to get in on the fun.

"If we have the weather, we'll stay out until the sun comes up and sleep the next day," Snyder said.

Sola Fide provides many ways to observe

The Sola Fide Observatory, just south of Austin, is stocked with new equipment.

With a larger reflector telescope, a digital camera and a computer program that memorizes the locations of stars there are many different ways to experience the night sky.

And if you don't understand any of it, Keith Snyder is more than happy to explain.

Snyder, a volunteer who manages the observatory, loves to spend his free nights photographing the stars, working with the images on the computer or simply tracking down familiar points in the constellations.

His work has gotten a lot more interesting since the addition of a new telescope, which is about 10-feet long with 16-inch diameter mirrors, donated to the observatory last year.

The donation came when Bill Elsbury of Mason City, Iowa, decided to make some changes in his personal observatory.

"I found it a little bit large for my current observatory, and I felt the folks up there could use it," he said.

The telescope features a motor that moves as your view of the sky rotates.

"You put Jupiter in there and come back a half-hour or an hour later and it'll still be in the center of the eyepiece," Snyder said.

In conjunction with the telescope, Snyder uses a computer program to map stars.

"You can tell the computer that's what it's looking at, and from then on, it knows," he said.

He can go back and reference that information whenever he wants to return to a previous star.

Two Saturdays a month, he guides anyone that is interested through the observatory. The schedule changes from month to month, depending on which Saturdays are the darkest. If you want to know when it is available, call the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center or check the city Web site at http://www.spamtownusa.com/imstar. Star viewing usually starts at dusk.

Matt Merritt can be reached at 434-2214 or by e-mail at :matt.merritt@austindailyherald.com