prairie Astronomers keep their hobby simple
By Mark Lage
Senior Reporter
Prairie Astronomers, a Lincoln
astronomy club, tries “to keep it
simple,” said Hon Debus, a mem
ber of the club and an auto painter
at Meginnis Ford.
"When you go into great detail,
or use big long words and explana
tions, >ou lose a lot of us,” Debus
said of the club.
So with its aim toward simple,
straightforward astronomy, the
Prairie Astronomers has been in
existence since I960, and now is
about 70 members strong.
The group meets twice a month.
The monthly meeting is the last
Tuesday of every month at the
Hyde Memorial Observatory at
Holmes Park. One half-hour of
each meeting is devoted to busi
ness. Debus said, and a program
follows that generally lasts from a
half-hour to an hour.
Slide shows, member presenta
tions of special projects and guest
lectures by University of Nebraska
Lincoln professors are included in
the program, Debus said. Topics
normally deal strictly with astron
omy, but also can include rockets,
space launches, and other aspects
of the space program, such as the
recent Voyager 2 encounter with
Neptune, he said.
“We had a program on the
Challenger disaster,” Debus said,
"which is not really astronomy, but
it still applies to us.”
Debus stressed that the group
tries to keep the program less than
an hour in length.
“We try to keep peoples’ full
attention,” he said. “If you keep it
short and sweet, people don’t get
bored.”
In addition to the club meeting,
the group gathers on a moonless
I riday night each month at an
observation point 30 miles south of
Lincoln, Debus said. I he combina
tion of moonless sky and distance
from city lights greatly enhances
the visibility of the night sky for
observation.
Outside of club meetings,
l,, ' . '
' i mmm % $ ^
members of the Prairie Astrono
mers do a great deal of volunteer
work, Debus said.
“We do a lot of volunteer work
at the I lyde Observatory, which is
run strictly by volunteers,” Debus
said. The observatory is open to
the public on Saturdays from sun
set until 11 p.m.
Also, two or three group mem
bers occasionally will get together
and prepare presentations for
school groups or local scout
groups, Debus said.
Debus himself has given school
presentations on a 10-foot reflector
telescope he built himself. He also
has given programs on the build
ing of it and then uses it to show
groups of children and adults the
deep sky from Hyde Observatory.
Debus said his personal high
light as a member of the Prairie
Astronomers was the recent period
of time in which Halley’s comet
was visible.
“1 spent more time at Hyde for
Halley, observing and doing vol
unteer work, than for anything
else,” he said.
The group did not have an offi
cial meeting for the recent lunar
mm i i mm ■
eclipse, but Debus said he and five
others gathered at the observatory
to watch it, and he was sure that
nearly all of the other group mem
bers watched it at home.
“It was tremendous,” he said.
Debussaid he knows of no such
highlights coming up in the imme
diate future.
“There will be some eclipses
coming up in 1991 and 1992, but
I’m not sure if they will be visible
here,” he said.
For anyone interested in em
barking on a “career” as an ama
teur astronomer, Debus has one
simple piece of advice:
“Join your local astronomy
club.”
“If you’re really interested, then
you’ll want to either buy or build
your own telescope,” he said.
“And by being in a club you learn
so much more about what you
want in a telescope, and you can
save a lot of time and money.”
Anyone with an interest can join
Prairie Astronomers, and to do so
one simply needs to attend the
monthly club meeting at Hyde,
Debus said. The meeting is free,
and interested but unsure people
can attend several meetings with
out joining, he added.
“Out of all the people who end
up joining, half join up right after
their first meeting,” Debus said.
“The rest take a little longer.”
'If you 're really interested (in becom
ing an astronomer), then you 'll want
to either buy or build your own tele
scope. And by being in a club you
learn so much more about what you
want in a telescope, and you can save
a lot of time and money.'
—Debus
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