ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, May 19, 1996 TAG: 9605210013
SECTION: DISCOVER PAGE: 25 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG
For those who enjoy nature, there are many treasures in the New River Valley - hidden and in plain sight. Look up on a clear night and you'll see them: twinkling diamonds floating in an ebony sea.
For star gazing, all you need is a trusty pair of binoculars and some knowledge about the constellations and the night sky, which changes week to week.
"A lot of times I'll go off to the side of the road somewhere and take a look," said Rick Fisher, who works at the D.C. Wysor Observatory at Dublin Elementary School. Binoculars "will let you see some things you can't see with your naked eye. Some craters on the moon, or the moons around Jupiter if it's a fairly decent pair."
Fisher opens his observatory to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and other public groups Friday and Saturday evenings by appointment. Call 731-0182.
You don't have to be a professional astronomer to enjoy the stars. Ted Alberts, a professor at New River Community College, has been staring skyward ever since he ordered a $16 telescope from a magazine as a little kid. "They said it'd do everything in the world," Alberts said. "Of course it didn't. But it piqued my interest."
Alberts favors the Blue Ridge Parkway for his star gazing. Sometimes you'll find him there with his new telescope - of much higher quality than his first one.
Few lights make the parkway a natural for star gazing, he said, but there are plenty of places closer to home so long as you avoid "light pollution. You also want to get up as high as you can."
Alberts suggests giving your eyes time to get used to the darkness, too. "After 20 minutes or so, you can see a lot more than when you, say, first came out of the kitchen."
Another tip: The best gazing takes place between the third and first quarter of the moon. "A full moon blots out a lot of the nice things that you can ordinarily see," he said.
He recommends cold nights for star gazing, but don't rule out the summer. "There's still a lot of good viewing then, and that's the only time you get to see the summer constellations."
To learn about the stars, Alberts suggests finding some primers for kids - fifth or sixth grade text books - and working your way up. "You have to start simple," he said, and then graduate to bigger and better books.
A magazine called "Astronomy," available in some local libraries, also provides a good lesson plan.
And Alberts himself gives introductions to the stars during the summers at Claytor Lake. Call the park's programming office this summer for more details. The park manager's office is (540) 674-5492.
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: GENE DALTON/Staff. A group of stargazers set upby CNBequipment on a Montgomery
County hill for a night studying the heavens. color.