Astronomy Club Reschedules Star Gazing Night to Saturday

Update: Due to inclement weather, the Montclair High School Astronomy Club's public observing night has been rescheduled from Friday to Saturday. 

Montclair High School’s Astronomy Club plans to do a little star gazing Saturday night — and everyone’s invited.

The club will set up its telescopes on Heninburg Field across from the high school on Midland Avenue from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m.

Club president, freshman Allen Liu, said people can stop by for five minutes or stay all two hours, as well as bring their own telescopes if they have them.

The 14-year-old started the group in the fall at the suggestion of his former teacher and club advisor Emrah Altunkaya.

Allen said Wednesday the club has been having observing nights all year long and this is the first time they are holding one for the community.

The star-gazer and math whiz (he's fulfilled all his math requirements at the high school and takes online college-level courses in the subject) said seeing photographs of planets, moons and stars doesn’t compare to the magic of looking through a telescope.

“It makes you feel like you are more connected to it,” he said.

His favorite thing to observe? The moons of Jupiter.

“That’s actually one of the things Galileo first saw in his telescope,” he said, adding how the astronomer’s discoveries changed the world.

Altunkaya, a physics and mathematics teacher at the high school, shares Allen’s passion for all things outer space, but has a different favorite — the moons of Saturn. He calls the planet, the “Lord of the Rings.”

“We would like people to get more knowledgeable about the space we are living in,” he said.

Future goals for the club include holding a documentary series and discussions, as well as purchasing a telescope that could be used for monthly public observation nights.