'Going To Try And Make You Feel Small:' Amateur Astronomer Brings The Universe To Massapequa Public Library

MASSAPEQUA, NY. — Massapequa Public Library visitors will have the chance to feel small on Dec. 16. At least, that’s what retired accountant and astronomy enthusiast Tom Lynch wants them to feel when they come see his lecture titled, “Our Solar System” on Dec. 16 at 7 p.m.

A Queens native, Lynch is a member of the Amateur Observers' Society of New York, a 501(c)3 organization of astronomy enthusiasts that promotes the hobby among the general public with meetings, permitting help and instruction. Lynch’s lecture will focus on the origins, current status and future changes of the solar system, dealing primarily with the sun before detailing its surrounding planets and other relevant features. He said in a Monday conversation that the lecture would last between an hour and 90 minutes, joking that, “Once it was up to 2 hours, I knew it was way too long.”

In a Monday conversation, Lynch said a significant part of the presentation will be spent attempting to convey the gross scale of space, not only in our solar system but beyond.

“I admit it at some point during the presentation, I’m going to try and make you feel small,” Lynch said. “I talk about the observable universe, and then what’s beyond the observable universe — nobody really knows, but they think it’s much like the observable universe — and we’re in one galaxy that’s a speck in that. And our solar system is just a speck in the Milky Way galaxy, and Earth is but a speck in our solar system. So I go through, explaining all that, and it takes a little while, but people just get blown away by that.”

Before he ever presented on the solar system, Lynch was a passionate advocate for the Library Telescope Program. That program was started by the New Hampshire Astronomical Society, and Lynch described it as, “trying to put a telescope into the hands of pretty much anybody who wants to do it.” As part of that program, Lynch and advocates like him train people to use telescopes, clean them and act as a foster parent for them. Their home? Public libraries across the country.

Lynch first got involved in 2015, first working with the public library in Lynbrook to secure a telescope. After he first got involved in 2015, Lynch said he started getting calls from other libraries with telescope-related requests as simple as, “We bought one, and we don’t know what to do with it.”

When asked what the feedback is like from library visitors who use telescopes, Lynch said it’s often positive, even if the size of crowds vary from training session to training session. For a longtime astronomy enthusiast, seeing that love of the stars take hold in people is an enjoyable experience, Lynch said.

“Genereally, people just absolutely love it. It’s funny, years ago, I was in Syosset and 75 people showed up for the training. And then, other places, you get three people. So it’s hit and miss, And that's cool, I'm fine with that. I enjoy doing it,” Lynch said. “I used to do ‘Sidewalk Astronomy,’ where you just take a telescope and set it up where people are, and just [to] people walking by you say, ‘hey, do you want to look at the planets?’ And that’s so much fun. People would actually cry. They’d look through the telescope and they’d see Saturn, and the rings of Saturn, and they’d literally cry. It’s kind of a weird thing, but I always felt that it was fun. People just get blown away by it.”

As he looks forward to the Dec. 16 presentation, Lynch cited famed astrophsyicist Stephen Hawking to describe why he feels it’s important that people understand the stars.

“He said something along the lines of, ‘Yes, we’re in a small galaxy orbiting a very average star in the vast ocean of galaxies that are incredibly large, but we’re special. We’re something different. We’re understanding it,’” Lynch, quoting Hawking, said. “That’s pretty special. So, that’s the thing, we’re understanding these things…We’re small, there’s probably other people, other life forms out there, but they’re so far away that we would probably never interact with them, but maybe someday. And then the fact that we’re learning about all these things, and we’ve learned a lot, and there’s still more to learn. That’s what makes it fun."

Space is still available to attend Lynch's presentation, and interested parties can register here. The event is free to attend.