Travels in San Diego

I’m always amazed by how easy it is for me to ignore the universe.  Not to mention the Milky Way. Or even the solar system. Sure I’m aware of the sun, but all the rest that’s up there — the incomprehensible distances, the astounding numbers –  I somehow find easy to forget.  That’s why attending a program like the one presided over by Dennis Mammana the other day feels a bit, to me, like going to church.

 

In an area (Southern California) rich in astronomers and astronomical resources, Mammana has to rank among the most valuable. He’s worked at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and the University of Arizona. Then he served as the resident astronomer at San Diego’s Reuben  H. Fleet Science Center. Six years ago, he stepped down from that position and moved out to where the darkest skies in San Diego County most consistently can be found –  in the desert. There he seems to have created a thriving career as a freelance astronomer: delivering lectures, courses, and workshops; writing his nationally syndicated “Stargazers” column; leading astronomy tours all over the globe; capturing spectacular photographic images of the sky; and generally getting people to appreciate all that’s overhead.

 

The recent gathering was typical.  After dinner at the Borrego Springs Resort, Mammana gave a presentation that covered both the meaning of the summer solstice and the things that should be visible in that moonless night’s sky. Then we trooped out beyond the tennis courts. Conditions were perfect. The wind had died and the temperature had dropped to about 70 degrees. Several amateur astronomers from throughout the region had set up their telescopes and stood ready to explain the wonders to be seen through their eyepieces: moons of Saturn, colliding galaxies, immense celestial dust clowds, and more. For me, one of the marvels was Mammana’s enthusiasm. It doesn’t seem to wane even when he’s pointing out things he’s pointed out probably tens of thousands of times before: the North Star, constellations. I took an adult ed class in astronomy from him at San Diego State maybe 20 years ago, and he’s seems as patient and ebullient and enthralled by it all now as then.

 

He sounds particularly excited by the apparently imminent designation of Borrego Springs as an International Dark Sky Community. As such, it will be only the second city in the United States to be so recognized (by the International Dark Sky Association) and the first in California. One of the easiest ways to get updates on that and other local astronomical happenings is to sign up for Mammana’s free e-mail newsletter: http://www.dennismammana.com/skyinfo/newsletter.htm.