From a fictional account for young readers to experiences in his backyard observatory, Peter Oppenheim creates the illusion of traveling among the stars.
By: Ilene Dube
Life can get pretty lonely for the amateur astronomer.
The best times to view the night sky are often in the dead of winter, in the wee hours. So when temperatures drop to the teens and below, telescope enthusiasts have been known to ply fellow viewers with down coats, blankets and buckets of piping hot cocoa.
Plainsboro resident Peter A. Oppenheim, a risk and crisis manager for Levitz Furniture by day, has built an observatory in his backyard, where he hosts "star parties" for family and friends. The observatory’s roof slides off for optimal viewing, and offers shelter on those cold winter nights. And if it gets really really cold, the telescope is hooked up to the computer inside his house, so observers can view the night sky from the comforts of Mr. Oppenheim’s family room.
To further encourage excitement in astronomy, Mr. Oppenheim has published The Telescope Travelers (Garden Spot Press, $9.99), a novel for young readers. It tells of the adventures of Zack, 8, and his sister Taylor, 11, who find a telescope on the beach when digging through the sand one summer vacation.
But this is no ordinary telescope. Soon they discover, while focusing it on an object in space, they can teleport to that place.
Visiting celestial objects, they begin to learn about space, planets and stars, as the telescope has the amazing ability to answer questions they pose to it.
Mr. Oppenheim, who studied sociology and broadcast journalism at Boston University, had never written a book before. "I learned by doing," he says. "It all started on a vacation with the kids (Kyle, 11, and Sarah, 15), waiting on lines or at restaurants. My son would be antsy like any kid, so I made up stories to occupy the time, and someone suggested I write it down.
"I don’t want to make it sound easy, but I just sat down and wrote," he continues. "I kept a pad by my bedside because it comes to me when I fall asleep, and I jot it down in the dark… I just grab a few moments and add a page or a chapter when I can."
Mr. Oppenheim’s interest in astronomy took off when he was 8 and watched the moon landing on TV from his parents’ den in Jericho, L.I. Ever since, "my passion and love for all things space has stayed with me."
He never had a telescope until 10 years ago, and credits his wife, Susan, for her support. The observatory is named the "Garden Spot Observatory" because Ms. Oppenheim sacrificed her backyard garden to allow her husband to build it there.
A former member of the Amateur Astronomers Association of Princeton, Mr. Oppenheim got many ideas for the Garden Spot Observatory from speaking with other astronomers, reading books and Web sites and combining techniques to develop his own.
One advantage to the roll-off roof, he points out, is a view of the entire sky, whereas a dome only offers a narrow slit. "Seeing the whole sky gives the perspective of how things relate to each other," he says. And because the telescope optics need to be at the same temperature as the outside air, the sliding roof allows this to happen at a faster rate.
Working with Project Astro Nova, which teams astronomers with teachers and brings hands-on lessons into the classroom, Mr. Oppenheim has taught third-graders at the Parkway School in Ewing. "It’s so gratifying to stand in front of a group of children who want more and more," he says. "When I ask questions, every hand goes up. That’s what I’m trying to do with this book get kids excited about the universe around them.
"I tell third-graders that one of them in the room could be the first person to go to Mars they are the right age and there’s so much excitement on their faces," he continues. High school students, he finds, may sometimes have an attitude, but "when they see Saturn for the first time with their own eyes, all of that melts away. And when adults see it for the first time, they become kids again, with all the wonder and excitement."
It’s one thing to see it on a computer screen or a TV, but quite another to see it in the sky, first hand. "That’s why I do this the look in both kids’ and adults’ eyes makes it worth it. It’s millions of light years away, but when it hits your eye, you have contact. It traveled millions of years to get here the least you can do is meet it in person, even if you have to pile on six layers of clothes and heated socks."
The Garden Spot Observatory is made up of two rooms, the scope room with three telescopes sharing a mount, and the control room, where the main controls for the computer are set up. (There’s even an old black-and-white RCA TV Mr. Oppenheim uses as a monitor he picked it up at a yard sale for $2 because it wasn’t cable-ready.) The observatory’s interior is painted blue, decorated with various images of the night sky. Mr. Oppenheim is a serious astrophotographer, and an image of Venus he shot with his daughter was published in the May edition of Sky & Telescope.
A computer helps the telescope track at the speed Earth moves, in order to keep an object in view. "This is essential in astrophotography because the iris of the camera has to stay open such a long time to capture the image of light, any movement would result in a blurriness," Mr. Oppenheim says.
The objects he photographs are so far away, they can’t even be seen in a telescope eyepiece. Guided by software that enables it to "see," he points his telescope at a dark spot, and an exposure may take up to 20 minutes. "There’s great excitement when the screen refreshes and you have a galaxy," he says. "When it’s lined up precisely, you get an image."
The
observatory’s frame was built from standard 2-by-4s and carbon steel pipe left
over from irrigation. The total cost to build the observatory, not including
telescopes and computer equipment, was $2,000. It took three weeks to build,
after three years of dreaming about it. Complete instructions are available on
Mr. Oppenheim’s Web site: www.gardenspotobservatory.com
"The fun of this hobby is making things myself to make this work," says Mr. Oppenheim. "No one makes this commercially some things have a limited audience and are very expensive, so it’s much more cost effective to build it yourself."
Mr. Oppenheim is also something of an artist at using materials in nontraditional ways. For example, when dew forms on the optics, he must gently warm it, but if he warms it too much, there will be distortion. So he employs a wall dimmer attached to a chafing dish coil to control the amount of current and thus heat. Craft foam is used as a dew blocker, creating a column of air in front of the optics so it doesn’t cool as quickly as everything else.
And yes, Sarah and Kyle are just as excited about astronomy as their fictional counterparts, Taylor and Zack. Even if the telescope in the Garden Spot Observatory doesn’t actually transport them to other planets, it brings them there by helping them to see and understand.
Mr. Oppenheim is at work on a sequel, and hopes to release Escape to the Black Hole in the early part of next year.
The Telescope Travelers author Peter A. Oppenheim will be at Borders Books, 601 Nassau Park Blvd., West Windsor, July 14, 2 p.m., to read from and sign his book, (609) 514-0040; at Barnes & Noble, MarketFair, 3535 Route 1, West Windsor, Aug. 30, (609) 897-9250; and at Princeton Public Library children’s book festival, 65 Witherspoon St., Princeton, Sept. 15, (609) 924-9529; www.thetelescopetravelers.comwww.gardspotobservatory.com

