BENTONVILLE — Did you feel it?
Do you remember where you were at 4:18 p.m. Tuesday?
Certainly you felt the change.
What change? You didn't feel anything?
It was the change of seasons, of course. That was the minute that summer changed into fall, or - for our brethren living in the Southern Hemisphere, winter changed into spring.
The change happens when the sun, as observed from Earth, crosses the celestial equator.
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Lunch Tuesday was with Roberto Bermudez Perez, a fellow amateur astronomer from Managua, Nicaragua. Perez - a member of Asociacion Nicaraguense de Astronomos Aficionados - and his wife are in town visiting his son. An engineer with an MBA, Perez is directing a project to modernize Managua's municipal dump into a modern landfill. He's also starting a small coffee plantation and mandarin-orange farm.
Saturday night, Roberto attended the Sugar Creek Astronomical Society's star party at the Hobbs State Park Visitors Center. Cloudy skies prevented viewing, but the clouds didn't prevent learning. Roberto told me that the approximately 40 people attending the event soaked up the astronomy information provided by the local astronomy society.
Tuesday, Roberto showedme photographs from various astronomy events he's attended back home. Some events have drawn more than 1,000 people, as evidenced by the long lines of people waiting for a look into the heavens through a telescope.
While the cultures of the United States and Nicaragua are much different, there are similarities between the people. People around the world look at the night sky and wonder about what they see - it's been going on since humans have walked the Earth. Publicize that you're going to have telescopes out and people show up, whether it's in Rogers, Ark., or Granada, Nicaragua.
The conversation ranged from how the landfill project is going to provide housing for the dozens of families that live at the dump and spend their days searching for recyclable materials - and who will provide the workforce for the new landfill that will have modernized recycling - to how science and religion are the study of the same thing.
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Amateur astronomers in Nicaragua face the same problem as those in America: light pollution. Managua, a city of 1.2million people, creates light shining up just as happens here - meaning only the brightest stars are visible from the cities.
And just as here, a short drive provides darker skies to pursue the pleasures at the eyepiece.
A big difference is that Roberto doesn't have to drive nearly as far as us here in the U.S. to find a sufficiently dark site.
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When Roberto explained how he got started in astronomy, he switched from his excellent English to Spanish when he named constellations and stars. His father would point out Ursa Major (commonly known as the Big Dipper) and the North Star, Roberto told me, as well as other astronomical sights. His love of the night deepened as he grew older, until he obtained a telescope and sought out other amateur astronomers.
When he asked how my interest got started, my story mirrored his: My father pointed out the exact same stars.
Our stories highlight the importance of having someone - a parent, a neighbor, a friend, a stranger met in a chance encounter - who sets us on a lifetime course, whether it's astronomy or cross-stitch.
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Kent Marts is editor/general manager of The Benton County Daily Record. His column appears on Wednesdays. He can be reached at kentm@nwanews.
com.
Opinion, Pages 6 on 09/23/2009