Kurt Eberhardt poses by the telescope at the observatory, which was built by the Warsaw Astronomical Society. Photo by Nathan Pace.

By Nathan Pace
InkFreeNews

It’s a hobby Kurt Eberhardt can’t get away from. Eberhardt has been president of the Warsaw Astronomical Society since 1992 and enjoys capturing images of the night sky. For him, astronomy is unique in how everyone has access to it, unlike other sciences like paleontology.

“You are looking at the same galaxy everyone else is looking at,” Eberhardt said. “They might have fossils or something else in their collection for whatever they are studying and you don’t get to see those because those are what the pros have. We all have the same sky. If there is an event going on and you have the right equipment to see it, it’s there. You have have the entire universe to look at and you never run out of things to see.”

The Warsaw Astronomical Society built an observatory on Camp Crosley, by North Webster and James Lake, in 1990. At one point, the observatory was attracting students from the region until 2006 when daylight saving time began in Indiana. As a result, students were not able to stay up until 10:30 p.m. for the night sky to get dark enough. Members can still use the observatory for astrophotography. The club also uses Potawatomi Wildlife Park for events.

Eberhardt said one of the missions for the club is to help people starting out with both astronomy and astrophotography.

A photo from the North Webster observatory of the Northern Lights. Photo by Kurt Eberhardt.

“I would recommend, if you are just getting started, start with what you have. See what your camera or your phone does, because it’s amazing what some of these new phones can do,” Eberhardt said.

While the moon, auroras and meteor showers are good places to begin, Eberhardt admitted it will take more more of an investment to see more in the night sky.

“It’s a constantly changing sky out there,” Eberhardt said. “You look at the moon and the moon doesn’t change much. It’s a great thing to start with an observe because there are a lot of great things on the moon. After awhile you learn the moon. Problem with the hobby is if you want to see better things you will have to start putting money into it.”

With the telescope at the observatory, Eberhardt has captured photos of Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, their moons and nebula. One aspect he advised is to compensate for the rotation of the Earth.

“One of the biggest things with astrophotography is you have to deal with the rotation of the Earth and you have to compensate for that.”

Without a motorized mount on a tripod, Eberhardt explained how stars can be blurry because of the speed of Earth’s rotation. Another solution is there are software programs, which edit thousands of images into one clean picture of a planet or nebular.

The astronomy club meets the second Friday of the month at the city council chambers in Warsaw. Members come from outside of Warsaw including Plymouth, Bremen and South Bend.

“One of the things that impresses people is for a city of our size in Warsaw to have a club. There have been other clubs that have popped up in the past in smaller cities, but they only last six to eight years,” Eberhardt said. “This one has lasted 44 years now.”

Images of Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn Kurt Eberhardt has recorded. Photos by Kurt Eberhardt.