On October 15, co-presidents junior Christian Chiong and junior Eric Yang led members to San Antonio Ranch to observe the stars and constellations through telescopes. Large strings of lights glazed over the night sky as MVHS Astro’s members explored the use of laser pointers to identifying constellations and asterisms. They also held a lesson on how to use a laser pointer as a tool to classify specific star clusters and possible sightings of planets.
“Usually when you look up at the sky, you just see a bunch of dots but we helped [members] figure out which stars form groups which turned into constellations,” said Yang. “And other ones called asterisms which are common names for a groups of stars,”
While laser pointers were later distributed during the event, it was to help the members point out constellations in the sky.
“It’s just easier to find the stars [with the laser pointer]. When you use your finger it’s hard to tell which star you are actually pointing to,” Yang continued.
As a club, this was their first meeting and many of the members were experiencing stargazing for the first time. Junior Jeyadev Kumar attended the observation to appreciate his fascination of constellations.
“[I] definitely [learned] how to identify constellations, we even saw other constellations because there was this program that shows the night sky in any point of view,” Kumar said.
The club also used long-exposure photos to capture the laser pointers and flashlights in action.
“We used our phones and stood by each other. We drew words with [the light of the phones]. We made words like, ‘hello’ and ‘astro,’” Kumar said.
