The man who taught students to build their own telescope at our makerspace a couple of years ago is now working to ignite a passion for astronomy in Stamford.
Stamford resident Zane Landers is starting a regular series of Sidewalk Astronomy events at Mill River Park in Stamford (near dog park). Interested people need only show up and Zane will have an array of telescopes for them to use.
The latest event, held over Labor Day weekend, attracted a crowd of about 50 people. I was part of this group and I was really amazed at the things that I saw that night. When I first arrived, Zane pointed one of his telescopes at Saturn (he knew exactly where it was in the sky) and I literally shouted “AWESOME” when I looked through the eyepiece. You could clearly see the planet’s rings!
There was an array of scopes there … some Zane had built himself (and taught others to build) for just a few hundred dollars – and others that cost ~ $45,000. The thing that surprised me the most was that the image of Saturn didn’t seem that much better on the more-expensive scope! Zane’s DIY scopes could see the rings just as clearly!
We also looked at jupiter and I could see the big storm (looks like a big red eye) on the planet’s surface! My mind was blown!
The great news is that Zane is planning an upcoming class, where people will be able to build a scope just like this. Feel free to send him an email if you’re interested. But stay tuned to this site for more info.
More Sidewalk Astronomy sites will be held soon. We’ll keep you updated!
Zane is a really smart young man that has been written up in publications like Time magazine, among others, and has authored articles on sites such as CloudyNights. He is rapidly becoming the face of the new generation of astronomers – and he wants to share his enthusiasm with the people of Stamford.