Today, one of the Italian members thought he had observed a black hole or other phenomena near Neptune. He had discussed the sighting to a colleague on the Swedish observation team. It had been decided just today that the two would cooperate to see if they could locate this object and discover what it actually was.
He was after all, more than willing to let them have their hunt. That was what astronomy was all about wasn’t it? He was fairly certain nothing would come of it but if it made them happy, his job was easier.
The night sky is studied by countless avid astronomy buffs looking at the heavens as well as the professionals. Obviously the objects they can observe are somewhat limited. Most telescopes range from a few hundred dollars to a several thousands of dollars. A few serious sky watchers spend considerably more. Sometimes in the thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Maybe one of the most ironic things is that while the observatories are searching the far reaches of the universe, it is the backyard astronomer that is watching the objects closer to Earth.
Carl Wyler was professor at a small Community College in Indiana. He was tall and good looking, with a commanding presence about him that ensured that his classes were always full. The same could be said for his adult continuing education classes. While the college didn’t have a huge fancy telescope for his students to use, they did have a very nice, computer controlled 16” Mead LX200 ACF Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope.
His evening adult education classes were limited to no more than twenty students and he always had to turn down requests for adding just one more. The college also had a few older Dobsonian telescopes that students could use. However a vast majority of them brought their own telescopes.
“Professor,” he heard Sharon Stine’s voice cut through the darkness.
He knew he had to be careful with her. She was recently divorced and on the prowl. She almost made it a point to stand just a shade too close and brush against him several times a night.
“Yes Ms. Stine?”
“Sharon. Remember? Last week you agreed to call me by my first name.”
“Certainly. What is it Sharon?”
Dumb mistake on his part. He should never have agreed to be on a first name basis but this was an all adult continuing education class. He was expecting them to act like adults. Right.
“Well, I can’t seem to find what I’m looking for,” she said.
“What are you trying to locate?”
“Jupiter. You said this was a good time of the year to see it better. I can’t seem to locate it.”
“Do you have your star chart with you?”
“Yes,” she said holding it up.
“Did you try to use it to locate Jupiter?”
“Honest, I did. Just like you showed us.”
“Well, it’s always a little tricky at first. Why don’t I get you on the right…?”
“Right what?”
“That’s what I’m asking you. What do we call the plotting points?” he asked.
“Oh. Let me think. RA and Dec, right?”
“Very good. Right Ascension and Declination.”
“Got it,” she said and went to setting the coordinates.
A few minutes later she was back where he was helping another student.
“I hate to bother you but I am still having a problem. I can’t seem to find anything.”
He walked with her over to the telescope she was using and looked through the finding scope. It seemed to be aimed pretty much where he knew Jupiter was located presently. He look through the eyepiece aperture and knew immediately what was wrong.
He reached up and removed the lens cover that was used to protect the object lens.
“You can see more with this off,” he said holding it up.
“Oh gosh. I couldn’t figure out for the life of me what was wrong. I feel really silly,” she said, putting her hand on his arm.
He smiled and held it out for her to take.
“Please excuse me, I was helping another student,” he told her and made a hasty retreat.
The rest of the class was pretty much routine for the third week of the eight week class. It was at the end of the class that it got a little strange.
“I know I’ve been a little bit of a bother tonight but can I ask you something?”
Oh hell. He just couldn’t say no but he really didn’t want to have to dance around the subject either. This was not going to end well, he thought.
“Certainly, what is it you would like to ask?”
“Well, while I did finally locate Jupiter and it was amazing and all but what I wanted to know about was the big dark area.”
“I’m not sure I understand. What big dark area?”
“I was just getting ready to pack everything up and I saw this… I don’t know how to describe it but like a dark shadow. It looked like it was behind Jupiter. It was only there for like a minute then it was gone.”
“Oh it was probably just something passing between the telescope and what you were observing. Maybe a satellite or plane. It could be any number of things.”
“I suppose. It did seem strange that it just popped up for a few seconds and then was gone.”
“Well maybe next week we can look in the same place together,” he said and immediately regretted it.
“Sure, that would be really great,” Sharon said.
He stood there thinking about what she had just said. A large dark shadow. It had to of been something simple. Maybe a moth or something had landed on her lens and she thought she was seeing something.
He decided that tomorrow he would use the Mead 200 LX to see if he could spot anything. He used his iPhone to check his schedule and found that he could break free from 4:00 p.m. on. As the department head, he had the privilege of making sure he didn’t teach any night classes except for the ones he enjoyed teaching such as the continuing education courses. He made a quick note to ask the other students in that class if anyone else had observed anything unusual.
He finished packing everything up and headed to his car. Sharon was standing by his door.
“Professor, I’m not hitting on you honest. I just thought you might like to go get a beer or something. I swear I won’t make a pass or flirt. I think I just need someone to talk to,” she said.
He looked at her. She was very attractive but he had always made it a policy never to get involved with a student under any circumstances. Oh what the hell, he decided, what could it hurt?
“I would enjoy that very much Sharon,” he told her.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The Director General for ESO had flown to Chili for the funeral of Louis Mendoza. The body had finally been released and the funeral was to be held in Santiago.
“I do not understand how you allowed this woman to be here under foot.”
“I wasn’t aware she was creating a problem Doctor Yorga,” Fassbinder said calmly.
“The point is she should have never been allowed to be here in the first place. She is an American of all things. They aren’t even part of the ESO. She has no right to be here,” he insisted.
“But she did have a right to be here doctor.”
“What right? That is what I am talking about. I don’t even remotely understand why she has the right to be here,” he said, his face starting to get red.
“Louis Mendoza was her mentor. He is the one who gave her the first break to become involved in this field. She is an accomplished astronomer and has written three excellent books. Her books are used by Universities and Colleges around the world. She has earned the right to be considered one of the foremost authorities on planet development.”
“So? So he gave her a break. He is dead. End of story.”