Dan's Papers - July 3, 2009 - Seeing Stars from a Portable Planetarium

In her popular song, "I Hope You Dance," Lee Ann Womack sings, "I hope you give the heavens above a second glance." This summer, you will have that chance and more, as the Montauk star parties and planetarium lectures get set to run for another educational season for adults and children.

Montauk has many special qualities, and one of them is that it has some of the darkest night skies on the East Coast of the United States. That is why a group of East End residents is trying to raise enough funds to build the Montauk Observatory, to be located at Third House, in Suffolk County's Theodore Roosevelt Park, on Route 27 about three miles west of the Montauk Lighthouse.

In the meantime, they have a professional grade, 20-inch Meade telescope and additional amateur telescopes available at Third House. Every other Saturday night this summer (the remaining dates are July 4, July 18, August 1, August 15 and September 6), adults and children are invited to attend fun "Star Watching Parties" on this site, around 9 p.m., when it gets dark. Before these parties, there will be a lecture by well-known astronomers and scientists, beginning at 7:30 p.m., and a chance to also study the stars and planets inside a portable, inflatable planetarium dome. These lectures and dome shows will also take place every other week this summer in Montauk, at a location to be announced on the group's Web site.

"All our events are free, educational, and are open to the public. They are great events for families with children," said Terry Bienstock, who is spearheading the effort to build the Montauk Observatory.

Bienstock, a media lawyer, former general counsel and executive vice president of Comcast Cable and an avid amateur astronomer, lives in Montauk and Florida. He and David Larkin, a businessman of East Hampton and Manhattan, purchased the Meade telescope for Third House in an effort to get the Observatory underway.

The idea for the Montauk Observatory started about five years ago, around the time that Biosphere 2 in Arizona was being abandoned as an experimental project. This self-contained environment was designed to replicate living on a base on another planet. After Biosphere 1 was built, and people tried living in it, Biosphere 2 was begun, but this project failed. Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman, of Montauk, heard about the observatory and telescope at Biosphere 2 being for sale, and decided it would be great to bring these to Montauk.

"We knew that this would be a great educational tool for our children, and the only other observatory on the East End is the Custer Institute on the North Fork," he said.

He wanted the County to buy it for $250,000, but County Executive Steve Levy vetoed it for lack of funds. Bienstock heard about the effort to buy this equipment and observatory in Arizona, and he decided to try and get funding for it in the Hamptons. In the fall of 2005, he joined with other like-minded people, including Larkin, Sean Tvelia, a physical science professor at Suffolk Community College, and Susan Harder, head of The Dark Skies organization, and they formed Montauk Observatory, Inc.

"Our first goal was to see if we could buy the telescope from Biosphere 2," said Bienstock. "But it was expensive to move this across the country, so we looked at alternatives." He found a revolutionary, newly designed professional grade telescope just being built by Meade Instruments in California, which would cost much less, so he and Larkin decided to purchase it and not wait to raise funds. Meade sold them the first one manufactured and delivered in the world, in December 2006. They celebrated with an inauguration party for this new addition to Third House in Montauk.

"I wanted this to be a professional grade observatory, but also easily accessible to non-professionals, so school teachers and kids could use it," said Bienstock. "We also wanted to hook it into the Internet, and to transmit what we see through it to our Web site, so people can watch the stars who can't physically make it over to Third House."

The group next wanted to build a permanent observatory at Third House, to house the telescope, which would consist of a 14 by 14-foot building, with a retractable roof. In this observatory building, designed by local architect Robert Young, people can stand inside and watch the stars, moon, planets, galaxies, nebula, satellites and space stations. Montauk Observatory, Inc. needed a license agreement with the County, which they are still working on completing. They started to have free "Star Parties" in the summer of 2007, with free lectures held before them at the Montauk Library. But this year, they wanted to have the lectures and the inflatable portable dome under one roof, and they are now seeking a Montauk building that has a high ceiling for the 9' by 14' planetarium dome.

Tvelia, of Ridge, will talk on July 18 and August 15, about the multicultural mythology of the skies. He said he is excited to do these talks because "astronomy is like a stepping stone into science. When you see a child look through a telescope, this could be enough to get him or her interested in science for life."

Harder, of East Hampton, said Montauk is so special because "it has some of the darkest skies in the country, so we worked to get Third House designated as a Dark Sky Park."

The Montauk Observatory is committed to raising $150,000 this year for building the observatory and hiring a full-time manager for the site. To donate to this non-profit organization and to get an up-to-date schedule of speakers, lectures, planetarium shows, and Star Parties, check their Web site at montaukobservatory.com and local listings throughout the summer.