Big skies, free of light pollution were major factors that led quietly passionate amateur astronomer John Stevenson and his wife, Tracy to move to Ardlethan from Bribie Island a couple of years ago.

And now he is sharing his interest and knowledge in Ardlethan Astronomy nights, with the first held last Saturday. He hopes to spark an interest in the community, to get people looking up at night and wondering.

They might even be inspired to buy binoculars or a telescope.

“Ardlethan has beautiful night skies. That’s a treasure,” he said.

John has been intrigued by the night sky and what it holds since he was about 16.

“There’s a nerdy side to everyone,” he laughed.

He happened to be outside with some binoculars and noticed there was more in the sky than he thought.

He then asked his mum to buy him a telescope and the telescopes just got bigger and the passion deeper as the years went by.

He joined a club and they did a lot of work on ‘grazing occultations’ which is where the moon ‘grazes’ a star and shows the moon mountains against the background light of the star.

“It builds up a profile of the mountains,” John said.

With many observers taking notes from many different positions and contributing this data to professional astronomers, the moon mountains can be mapped and measured.

John said this ‘real’ work contributing to scientific space knowledge, fed his interest.

He gradually developed a passion for astrophotography that allowed him to look deeper into space and find previously unregistered super novas and many more galaxies.

Super novas are stars that have exploded in distant galaxies.

John can lose hours in his observatory in the back yard with his 14 inch Meade LX200 telescope and camera that tracks across the night sky.

“I say to Tracy, I’ll just go out for a couple of hours. Next thing it’s 4am.”

He loves the astrophotography, even though he says he is only an amateur.

The camera allows him to see much deeper into space, although nothing like Hubble or now the James Webb.

“It’s a hobby I enjoy and can contribute to science in a small way.” He said that about 200 years ago astronomers only had small telescopes and were not aware of how many galaxies there were.

With the advent of the Hubble telescope they estimated there were about two billion galaxies but now with James Webb they estimate there are about three trillion.

And although he’s never seen aliens or UFOs, he doesn’t discount the possibility of life existing somewhere in those trillions of galaxies.

Every night the sky is slightly different, with new wonders to be found. Super novas that John finds in other galaxies can be 300 million light years away.

The Crab Nebula which was going super nova 600 years ago, would have been visible through the day 600 years ago, it was that close.

It can still be spotted with a small telescope. The safety zone limit for a super nova that won’t burn our galaxy to a crisp is up to 100 light years away.

John said there were no dying stars within our limit at this stage.

The last star within 642 light years from us that created concern because it showed signs of dying, was Betelgeuse.

John pointed it out to the crowd of nearly 20 on Saturday night. It is a very red giant that in star terms is close to dying but its explosive end could be in another million years.

John’s work now is taking photos of super novas deep into space in far distant galaxies. “My photos help confirm the super novas,” he said.

From his photos, (and photos by others), professional astronomers find the super nova and take spectrographs of it to tell them the composition of the light and from that the elements involved.

This adds to the scientific data of super novas, which helps astronomers understand them better.

John is even on Google. Just Google John Linday Stevenson and you will see one of his photos of a solar eclipse in November 2012.

He will hold another astronomy session on April 20 when there will be a rare hybrid eclipse that people can safely watch on his computer screen as his telescope tracks the event.

For more details on time and location, check the Ardlethan Community Facebook page or contact John on john.lindsay.stevenson@gmail.com

This article appeared in the Narrandera Argus, 16 February 2023.