Physics department finds new astronomy enthusiasm contagious

By: Nick Tabor

Posted: 3/13/08

Even on chilly winter nights, Professor of Physics Ken Hayes often hauls his telescopes to a field near Strosacker Science Center and stargazes for hours.

Since it takes an hour and a half just to focus his camera, he usually brings a tent to provide some shelter from the wind.

"It's like ice fishing," he said with a laugh.

After viewing the Feb. 20 lunar eclipse for four hours straight, the camera's batteries died from the cold temperature, causing Hayes to cut his venture short.

Ice blanketed the lens of his telescope.

But Hayes recently ordered a new $1,300 telescope camera on behalf of the physics department, and he expects it to arrive in about three weeks. He said its new technology helps eliminate the hassle of focusing.

"So hopefully that will be one less headache," he said.

The headaches never stopped him, though. He's looked at the stars since he started teaching at Hillsdale College 19 years ago; often alone, and often with archaic equipment.

In the past few years he's turned both of those situations around.

Hayes said the physics department only owned one telescope during his first 12 or 13 years here. About six years ago, a retired military officer from Florida gave the college a sizeable grant, specifically for teaching astronomy.

"It just came out of the blue," Hayes said. "Nobody solicited him, so far as I know."

Hayes spent the money on five new telescopes.

Associate Professor of Physics Adam Smith said he briefly helped teach an astronomy class before he came to Hillsdale 10 years ago, but the new equipment sparked a new interest in him.

"I'm kind of into techy stuff," he said. He said he liked the three new computerized telescopes that automatically locate constellations for the viewer.

"That part of it kind of appealed to me, because I'm terrible at trying to find things in the night sky," he said.

Judith Schellhammer, Physics Lab Director, came to Hillsdale as an undergraduate within a year after the equipment was purchased.

She said she'd always found astronomy attractive. After she took Physics 101 and a cosmology class with Hayes, she started exploring the equipment herself.

"We got the telescopes out and started playing with them, and that's when I thought, 'We need to have an astronomy club,'" she said.

She started the club in 2004. It fizzled out after she graduated in 2006, but she said junior Heidi Phillips started working in January to revitalize the club.

Hayes said 31 students signed up for the club's mailing list at their most recent meeting, and they've attracted as many as 100 people at campus-wide astronomy events. He said he hopes that interest will continue to spread.

Any student who's willing to go through the proper training can use the equipment himself, he said.

"I think he gets excited when other people get excited about physics," said junior Katie Mustazza, a physics major. "I think maybe that's easier to do with astronomy than, say, particle physics."

But Hayes has grown accustomed to a small, dedicated group of astronomy enthusiasts.
"For me it's just about the beauty of [the universe] and the fact that it exists at all," Hayes said. "I don't think it's possible for us to really appreciate how big it is."

Schellhammer agreed.

"It sort of puts life in perspective, at least for me," she said.