I’ve always had a fascination with space. I loved playing around with my dad’s old telescope when I was younger (although it was broken) and imagining what the moon looked like up close, kinda like Ernie in Sesame Street (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoteMQ6w0SE).

I finally had the opportunity to do so last Friday when I went with the Rose Scholars to visit the Fuertes Observatory. We first listened to a lecture called “The Search for Life Begins at Home” about studying other planets in the same way that we study our own. The lecturer went into detail regarding the “habitable” worlds nearby, which was interesting to listen to as a “habitable” world where humans could possibly live doesn’t necessarily mean that the planet itself is exactly like Earth.

After listening to the lecturer, all of the Rose Scholars went to upstairs to see and learn about the observatory’s telescope. Despite the cloudy weather, it was still clear enough to see the moon. While looking through the telescope, I had to remind myself a few times that I was actually looking at the moon’s surface and not just a photo of it.

It was also interesting to look at the different tools in the observatory and learn about different machinery used in the past for stargazing. I was especially drawn to what looked like the pin-hole camera (a device that uses a small pin-sized hole to expose a small amount of light to a piece of film in order to take a photo) that seemed similar to the one I made in my photo class in high school.

I’m really glad that I had the opportunity to participate in the observatory event not only because I finally got to see the moon up close, but I also learned a lot about space that I didn’t know before.