Out of this World

Galaxies far, far away will become closer to North Tahoe — and the rest of the world — once a private observatory in Markleeville begins operations next month. Unlike almost all telescopes of its caliber, the Sierra Stars Observatory will be available not only to doctoral candidates and astronomers, but to everyone with an Internet connection and $100.

“Astronomy isn't a very applied science at the undergraduate level,” said Rich Williams who owns, manages and designed Sierra Stars. “What we’re offering is a real opportunity for regular people to be able to actually experiment in astronomy themselves and not simply go onto a Web site and download photographs that somebody else took.”

Though Sierra Stars boasts an incredibly powerful and sensitive telescope — which has an enormous 24” aperture and a sensitive time-lapse digital camera — what makes it unique is not so much what it does, but how it does it. Because the telescope is completely robotic and controlled by software Williams helped design, Sierra Stars will be accessible over the Internet to anyone anywhere simply visit www.sierrastars.com.

“When I first started designing robotic telescopes, I realized they could be accessed online," said Williams, who left a lucrative position at Microsoft to start a high-end telescope optics company. “At one point...my partners and I were trying to do the software to develop that kind of access, but it never quite came to fruition. Then I decided, ‘The hell with it, I’m doing this on my own,’ and built Sierra Stars.”

For $100, anyone can purchase enough time on the Sierra Stars to take approximately 30 photographs of deep-sky objects of their choice, such as the photographs featured today in the Bonanza.

The customer can then download the pictures to use for everything from professional research, to college undergraduate classes, to high-end amateur use, to living room decor.

Incline Village residents will be given the opportunity to learn about Sierra Stars first-hand through two introductory astronomy courses at Sierra Nevada College next fall. Residents can take the course by enrolling at SNC or by auditing it as a community course.

Incline Village resident Dr. Paul Guttman’s class will combine study time with hands-on observing, using the small telescopes owned by Incline Village’s local astronomy nonprofit, Space Science for Schools, which Guttman also heads. But while his telescopes are excellent for everyday use, they aren’t powerful enough to look the dimmer objects on the cutting edge of science.

That’s why having access to Sierra Stars is such an advantage.

“If you want to look at the planets or some of the brighter galaxies or nebulae, these scopes are excellent,” Guttman said. “Still, there’s so much else out there that you just can’t see clearly without a real observatory.”

Incline Village resident Alan Castator, who has been eagerly anticipating Guttman’s course ever since he first heard of the idea, said having access to Sierra Stars will make the experience all the more incredible.

“It’s wonderful to find sophisticated resources like these available in our own small town,” he said. “This is going to be the opportunity of a lifetime because we have the resources available — both human and physical — to pursue knowledge for its own sake.”

Astronomy class

Astronomy 121 and 125 will be available at Sierra Nevada College next fall. For more information about auditing the courses, contact Guttman at (775) 720-6999.

Staff writer Tom Meyer can be reached at (775) 831-4666 ext. 112 or at tmeyer@tahoebonanza.com.