Have you ever wanted to experience something but aren’t sure how in the world you would ever get the stars to align so it would happen? This would be something big…something so out there that it feels impossible. I hope you have something like this in your life…and if you don’t, dream something up and start working to make it a reality!

One of my “bucket list” items was to spend time at an observatory with huge telescopes, looking at the stars and experiencing life as an astronomer.

A Child’s Wonder

One night when I was in elementary school, my mom took me to her college astronomy class. I felt super mature, sitting in a lecture hall with a textbook as big as my chest on the table in front of me. I couldn’t tell you what the lecture was about. But the experience was magnetic.

My grandparents have a house out in rural Maine, and we would spend time up there every summer when I was a kid. There’s no light pollution in that part of Maine, so the naked-eye views of our the night sky are absolutely stunning. We used to lie out in the back field, swatting mosquitoes and black flies, and watch satellites and shooting stars. I didn’t understand much about what I was seeing, but sometimes just drowning in wonder is enough.

A Student’s Curiosity

Astronomy was the last college science course I took. Here in Dallas, we have horrible light pollution, but the university I attended has a small observatory and an amazing astronomy professor. I loved learning the science, but my favorite events were our star-gazing parties up on the roof.

I say “student’s curiosity” — so you might think this phase of my life, like “a child’s wonder”, had an expiration date tied to some kind of life event like graduation. Not true. I’m still a student — that will never, ever change — and I still have that same childlike wonder whenever I look up into a night sky.

Taking a Chance on a Dream

I believe to the marrow of my bones that if you’ve been given an opportunity, you should suck every possible drop of experience out of it. That’s how you learn. It’s how you grow.

So when I had the chance to apply for a three-day teacher training class at the McDonald Observatory in Fort Davis, Texas, as part of my professional development as a science teacher, I jumped at it. I’d get to learn new methods of teaching light and optics…and I’d get to live at the facility and look through enormous telescopes at a star-strewn sky.

I wanted this experience so bad it hurt…but I got waitlisted. I had just about given up hope on attending when I got the note that I was accepted.

An Astronomer’s Life

The McDonald Observatory is out in the middle of absolutely nowhere. If you’ve never driven across West Texas, I’m not sure you can quite grasp the enormity of the emptiness of the landscape.

The astronomers working at the facility lived in the Astronomer’s Lodge…and that’s where the teachers got to stay as well. The rooms are simple, functional, and neat. Ladies from the nearby town prepare dinners for the astronomers, and the fridge in the dining room is stocked with grab-and-go breakfast items.

The thing that impressed me the most were the blackout shades–these have to be down and locked at night so that no light from the lodge interferes with the instruments. Let me tell you…my room was pitch dark. Like, you can’t see your hand in front of your face dark. I’m a big girl now but I’m not used to zero light at night. (Would you laugh at me if I told you I had to leave a light on in the bathroom? It’s okay. Go ahead.)

The hallways in the sleeping wing of the lodge were all lit with red bulbs, which made it feel very surreal. In fact, all the facilities at the observatory have red lighting because red light doesn’t mess with your night vision like blue light does. We even had to put clear red cellophane over our phones and flashlights when we went out for our evening observations.

We spent our days learning about the science behind the giant telescopes, with amazing hands-on activities that were as fun for us as they would be for our students! If you haven’t already guessed this about me, I L.O.V.E. to learn…so getting to be a student again for a few days was incredible.

In my next post in this series, I’ll share more about our observations, the telescopes, and the amazing research that is happening at the McDonald Observatory right now!

Be wonder-filled,

S.K.