Stargazing with the Inwood Astronomy Project

We realize we're overly fond of the efferverscence around these parts (after all, the blog is called We Heart New York, not We Kind of Like It). But we recently saw something so-knock-our-socks-off amazing, so unbelievably awesome, we're still glowing: Jupiter and its four moons. From Manhattan. Thank you, Jason Kendall and the Inwood Astronomy Project.

Faithfully each Saturday, barring inclement weather, Jason lugs a high-powered telescope to the top of Inwood Hill Park, at the very tip of the island, and stays from dark until past midnight, seeing what there is to see, with whomever shows up. "Hey, the drug dealers know me," Jason will explain to anyone who wonders about safety. "And nobody comes up here anyway. Too dark. It's more dangerous during the day." Safer, maybe, but far colder: "A nice windy night, if you like the wind," he said more than once.


Every few minutes, Jason tuned the 'scope, careful to account for what he terms the "Bronx Borealis" (the light refracting from Times Square, New Jersey, and the Bronx being an inescapable issue). If you knew what to look for, Venus and many satellites were easily spied with the naked eye. The Ring Nebula (M57 [above, much more colorfully]) and fuzzy M31, shaped like a spill, required some help, as did a 2.5 million-year-old spiral galaxy and a globular cluster that contained around 200,000 stars --- you know, give or take.

Jupiter outshone them all. The brilliant white sphere was encircled by a bluish-gray ring, with three small diamond chips on one side and one chip on the other. After we stood for several minutes, looking, chilled by more than the cold, we bounded back down the hill and took the subway home.

Photos: thanks and thanks
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