If you've ever wanted to get involved in astronomy, October might be a great time to get started. Here are some tips from the American Museum of Natural History's Sr. Education Manager, as well as info on a special Halloween-themed event.
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00:00 October is a great month for stargazers, even if you're a beginner.
00:04 Tonight we have more with Jackie Fadry. She is an astrophysicist and senior education manager
00:10 at New York's American Museum of Natural History.
00:14 Jeff Cornish asked her how to look for meteor showers this month.
00:17 You can start looking at the beginning of October and watch it kind of increase in the number of
00:23 fireballs that you'll see in the sky or what some people call lovingly shooting stars and then it'll
00:29 peak around October 19th or 20th. So you've got kind of the month of October to play around in
00:35 the sky and get your bearings and look for some of these beautiful streaks of light that you can catch.
00:42 Any quick tips for beginners who are interested in getting started in astronomy?
00:47 I always tell people the same thing. People want to jump to a telescope. They're like,
00:53 "What telescope should I buy?" Absolutely do not get a telescope first. The very first thing you
00:58 need to do if you want to get into stargazing or if you want to get into astronomy, you have to
01:03 know the nighttime sky. So my first and foremost recommendation is to learn the constellations.
01:11 No matter where you are in the United States, from New York City where we're super light polluted
01:16 here all the way out to like big sky Montana or somewhere else where you get these gorgeous,
01:22 crisp, clean skies, you can step out each night and find bright stars, find where the planets are,
01:30 orient yourself so that you know exactly what you're looking at and watch for a season. You'll
01:36 notice how some constellations rise, some constellations set at certain times of year
01:42 and you'll get used to it and then you can start taking yourself to the next level which is maybe
01:47 binoculars where you can look for deep sky objects. And only then would I recommend moving on to a
01:52 telescope because at that point you will have started to understand what's possible in the
01:57 nighttime sky. Later in the month brings Halloween and you have a program at the American Museum of
02:02 Natural History called Spooky Space and this sounds pretty compelling. Could you give us a
02:06 little bit of a preview of some of the scary cosmic mysteries you'll be sharing? Yeah, so we
02:12 are doing a special program on Halloween at the American Museum of Natural History where I'm
02:16 going to guide people through an immersive science experience where I tell some of the
02:24 ghoulish science stories of the sky. This is more or less like we know that there are asteroids out
02:31 there but is there anything that's going to hit us? How often might that occur? I'll show where
02:36 the hazardous asteroids are that astronomers watch carefully to make sure that no one's on a close
02:43 approach orbit. I'll also show some of the phenomenal imagery that's been coming in from
02:48 the James Webb Space Telescope that shows the remnants of dead stars or the remnants of massive
02:56 galaxy collisions. All of which can end up looking very scary in some ways which is the same kind of
03:05 thing that happens on Halloween where you get excited about ghosts and goblins and all that.
03:12 None of that is in space but I'll keep with that kind of theme to get you a little bit scared but
03:18 also safe because it's science. That sounds great. That sounds like a really really fun event. Well,
03:22 we appreciate you Dr. Jackie Farrity, Senior Scientist and Senior Education Manager and
03:27 Astrophysicist at New York's Museum, American Museum of Natural History. Thanks again. You're welcome.