Rotarian Eric Loch, armed with extra photos from fellow enthusiast Mike Waddell, engaged the Emmaus Rotary on Thursday, August 22, 2019 with words of practicality and inspiration as he spoke about his adventures in Astronomy (not astrology!)
Lock introduced the educational, non-profit Lehigh Valley Amateur Astrological Society which has star gazing parties open to the public and rents basic equipment. He advised that the 82 acres of Cherry Spring State Park up in Potter County is a great spot to find a dark sky to see the planets, stars and nebula.
Rotarian John Chisca and his son Owen investigate the large piece of Seymchan Meteorite with Pallasite which Loch passed around the room. It was found in Russian and it may be older than our own planet.
Loch captured imaginations when he spoke about the mind-boggling numbers of heavenly bodies, the great distances we can see with telescopes and the age of the light we see. He showed photos taken of M13 and nebula like the Eagle, Swan and Horsehead (found in the Orion constellation).
One felt like Lock could talk for hours about his passion and go deeply into philosophical thought. Considering:
"Are we human because we gaze at the stars or do we gaze at them because we are human. Pointless really: 'Do the stars gaze back?' Now that's the question." from Moon Starer by Neil Gaiman.