GARDEN GROVE : Astronomy Program Gets Stellar Marks

Peering through a telescope for the first time, Betty Vang, 14, gasped as the moon, magnified 125 times, jumped into view. “Oh, it’s so cool! It’s so big!” she exclaimed as she squinted into the eyepiece on a recent weekday night.

As dozens of other students jostled for their turn, Betty added, “It looked like a big piece of Swiss cheese, but there’s more holes in the moon.”

She was one of about 100 students and parents who attended a special program at James Irvine Intermediate School designed to involve parents in school activities and their children’s education.

During the hourlong program, Bruce Crowe, a member of the Orange County Astronomers Society, showed color slides of the planets and their moons, which were taken by the NASA probe Voyager.

Describing the planets, Crowe pointed out that not all of them have rocky surfaces like Mars and Venus. For example, Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune are composed of gas.

He also showed slides of Halley’s Comet and told the audience that comets are essentially dirty balls of gas and ice. As they approach the sun, they shed minute particles that can form tails millions of miles long that can be seen from the Earth.

“You could take a comet’s tail, stretched over millions of miles, and pack it up into a suitcase and walk away with it. That’s how thin it is,” he said.

Afterward, members of the audience lined up for a close-up view of the bright half-moon overhead. Through the 10-inch reflector telescope, the countless craters that mottled the moon’s gray and white surface were easily visible. Shadows that spilled across the moonscape made ridges and craters stand out in sharp relief, offering an almost three-dimensional image.

Crowe also aimed the telescope at the constellation Orion, providing a view of a small cluster of stars as well as a nebula, a wispy halo of interstellar gas.

Parents and students alike praised the program, saying that it generates interest in learning outside the classroom.

“It’s great for students to come here and see things like that,” said Hector Hernandez, 38. “It’s good. I found out that the planets are not like Earth and that they’re made of gas. They’ve got moons and rings and stuff.”

“It was fun. I got to see the moon up close. It looked like a mountain with a lot of holes,” said Jose Alba, 12. Learning about the stars by using a telescope, instead of learning facts through a textbook, “makes it more fun,” he said.

The experience left Betty a little philosophical. With a glance toward the stars twinkling overhead, she said: “Maybe someone’s looking at us too.”