The Pembina Valley Astro Club hosted an impromptu viewing night in Winkler last week in the hopes of catching the C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) comet in the night sky.
“What’s interesting about this comet is it is what’s called a long period comet, so the next time it’ll come around is sometime between 80,000 and 86,000 years from now,” explained Kenton Dyck, who heads up the club. “The fact that it comes close enough that we can see it is fairly unique, and so we’re out here trying to capitalize on that as much as we can.”
Clouds and haze didn’t cooperate with the group’s comet-viewing plans that night, but that didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the crowd of stargazers, who instead set their sights on the brilliantly bright moon, Saturn, and a few notable stars.
It was Corey Messner’s first time checking out the Astro Club.
“A friend from work was telling me about this club and so I decided I’d come out tonight and see if I could see the moon and see the comet through a different telescope than my own,” he said, noting his model is much less powerful than Dyck’s. “His lowest magnification is probably close to like my middle magnification.”
Astronomy has been a lifelong interest for Messner.
“Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been into it … it’s a fascination of what’s all out there, and it kind of makes you think about how important life is here,” he said. “It’s very humbling to think about everything that’s out there in our solar system, and it’s intriguing to try and find things through the telescope.”
Michelle Martens has been coming to the club’s viewing nights for awhile now, and says it’s always a good time.
“It’s really unique getting to come and look through such a large telescope,” she said. “It’s not something you find around here very often, and to be able to come and just check out the sky from a zoomed-in perspective is really neat.”
Seeing the rings of Saturn has been a highlight, Martens shared, and she also enjoyed checking out a dense star cluster earlier this year.
“And Kenton is very educated, very smart about all this, so it’s interesting being able to learn about all about it while you’re looking up at it.”
Eleven-year-old Melissa Martens was most definitely enjoying her first time out with the club.
“This is awesome,” she said, noting she loves “getting to see what’s out here … it’s so cool to look out there and see there’s other planets, there’s other places.”
Dyck has hosted upwards of 20 events across the region since getting his computerized telescope last year.
“I think at last count we’re at almost 1,700 people that have looked through the eyepiece just this year alone,” he said. “We’ve been travelling all over the place. It’s been wildly successful.”
Seeing adults and especially kids eagerly line up for a chance to take a peek through the giant lens is a big part of what keeps Dyck going with this club.
“That’s a huge drive for me because I always feel that had I been exposed to something like this when I was their age, I would have been better for it,” he said. “I would have hopped on this passion a lot sooner.”
You can stay up-to-date on upcoming club viewing nights by following them on Instagram (@astroclubpv) or emailing astroclubpv@gmail.com.
