Welcome to the dark side: amateur astronomy in Manchester!
Left: Kessler's observatory setup in his backyard in Manchester Township. Right: An astrophotography image captured by Kessler. Photos courtesy of Clayton Kessler.
by Keegan Sweeney
In Michigan, April is the month of spring rain, budding trees, and warmer afternoons. It is also the month of International Dark Sky week. Dark sky week, from April 13 to April 20, is a celebration of the nighttime and preserving darkness for ecosystems and stargazing hosted by the International Dark-Sky Association. For most, preserving dark skies may not sound like a “big deal.” For those in regions with darker skies, it can often be the very reason they live there in the first place.
Clayton Kessler, an amateur astronomer, moved from Woodhaven to Manchester for the dark skies. Kessler has an observatory in his backyard that he built himself equipped with a telescope and astronomy camera. Kessler had been interested in astronomy since he was a teenager and has been gazing at the cosmos for decades. So for him, a dark sky is vital to the entire hobby.
In Woodhaven, Kessler said that you could “look up and count all the stars you’d see on one hand.” Woodhaven being a part of the greater Metropolitan region of Detroit, it took some driving to reach a dark sky. Kessler used to drive an hour to set up his telescope for a stargazing session “all hours of the night” only to drive an hour back and wake up in the morning for work.
Kessler said that he stuck a pin down on a map and drew a circle. “I’m willing to drive this far. Where’s my best shot? And one of those places was the Manchester area,” Kessler said. Now, he’s able to walk out to his backyard to his permanent telescope setup, turn on the computers, and get it pointed at the sky. The observatory itself is a 10x20 foot shed and on one end is an open roof.
Kessler’s main interest is in astrophotography, which means he doesn’t look through an eyepiece in his observatory but at computer monitors, layering images on top of one another. Kessler has many astrophotographer friends in the area who photograph the sky in the same way but some do exposures for dozens of hours over the span of weeks or months. Some of these images end up in worldwide astronomy magazines. Kessler doesn’t try to publish images himself and does it simply for the love of the hobby.
When Kessler started in astrophotography, film was the main medium for the art. Kessler stuck to film for a long time until his neighbor kept insisting that he get into digital photography. When his neighbor brought a camera over and asked for a little cash in return, that was all it took to hook Kessler on the newer tech. As to why he stays engaged with the hobby, Kessler said, “I like the fact that I get to see things that you just can’t look up and see.”
“I like looking through a telescope and observing things,” Kessler said. “But your eye won’t store up light like film or digital imaging does. So you get what hits your eye and it's gone.”
As for the broader region, in and around Manchester remains an ample spot for stargazing and astronomy hobbyists in the 25 years that Kessler has lived there. Kessler said that, when he and his wife first moved to Manchester, they were quite impressed that the township had built dark sky preservation into their plans for zoning and population density. They wanted to keep the area sparse and emphasized dark sky preservation as a reason for doing so. “I said, man, this plays right into me. I found my people,” Kessler said.
He’s still in good company, too. A neighbor of Kessler’s also has a backyard observatory and Kessler said that many others in the area take advantage of the dark skies. Kessler said that you can drive around the area and spot observatories and telescopes in people’s backyards. When local clubs put on events, Kessler said it’s amazing as to how many people end up showing up.
According to Kessler, the barrier to entry into the hobby is quite low. He said that people often think they need the most powerful magnifying piece to see the cosmos. This isn’t the case, however, because of the sheer scale of cosmological objects — which do require magnification but mainly a wide lens. The goal among enthusiasts is to capture what their favorite objects are but also things that are normally difficult to see in detail. Nebulas are relatively easy to photograph while planets are actually more difficult.
For anyone wanting to get into the hobby, there are $600 telescope cameras the size of laptops, Kessler said. The technology has reached the point where, with this device, someone could see live images on their phone that look as if they were taken from an observatory. There are also many events in the regional astronomy scene, such as meet-ups that Ann Arbor’s club University Lowbrows organize. There are telescopes set up at such events that anyone can use to try their hand in the hobby. Learn mare at https://websites.umich.edu/~lowbrows/.
The fuel behind the local astronomy scene, of course, is darkness. Dark Skies Week celebrates an unsung hero in the quality of life for humans and animals. “To me, it’s significant because it lets everybody pay attention to the fact that we have a problem with lighting. And it’s a problem that people don’t think about,” Kessler said.
Kessler emphasized that most streetlights emanate light in many directions — and a lot of the light is excess, creating light pollution and excess energy costs. Thanks to local zoning laws and the state’s emphasis on dark sky preservation, many regions remain astronomy hotspots, however.
The nearest dark sky preserve to Manchester is around 45 minutes away at the Lake Hudson State Recreation Area in Lenawee County. Here, anyone with a telescope, binoculars, or just their eyes can enjoy a rare slice of stark darkness. This spring and summer, there will be plentiful regional events from Ann Arbor’s University Lowbrows club and other clubs where anyone can experience the cosmos alongside experienced observers. Because of Michigan’s preservation of dark skies, the dark side is, in fact, quite bright.
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