When I enrolled in my first courses at Mount Holyoke College, I was trying to fulfill the college’s distribution requirements. The College requires all students to take a math or a science course during undergraduate study. Neither of those fields are my academic strengths, so I was wary of how I’d manage them in college. I ended up registering for an astronomy course to fulfill the requirement, and was pleasantly surprised by the outcome.
The astronomy course was an observing class, meaning that when the sky was clear we’d go out and observe it both with the naked eye and with telescopes. Unfortunately, it was often cloudy or raining during class. On these nights we’d have lectures from classmates and from the professor. While I definitely learned a lot in others’ lectures, something I only later came to value in the class was presenting. My professor required that we each give two presentations during the course. Let it be known that public speaking is not my forte and usually causes me a great amount of anxiety and stress.
However, while the act of presenting tormented me a bit, the experience was actually something I came to value. I found that in having to teach my class and prepare them sufficiently for our weekly quizzes, I taught myself a lot. I prepared and gave two presentations, one on the formation of the Moon and the other on the Orion Nebula.
It’s really amazing to be able to look up at the night sky and find Orion The Hunter, and from there Orion’s Belt, Orion’s Sword, and the Orion Nebula. I feel I’m closer with this part of nature since learning more about these topics. Being able to understand and connect with the night sky is an ability I’m very grateful to have gained.
When the sky was finally clear to go out and observe, that process was awesome too. We looked at constellations, stars, nebulae, and the Moon. I got to see Earth’s Moon, the space object I’d learned all about, as close as I’d ever see it. I was jumping up and down (from the cold, but mostly excitement) and sent the picture (shown below) I took through the telescope to literally everyone I know.
In taking this course, I’ve only just scratched the surface of the field of astronomy. Yet, the glimpse that I got truly surprised me in the best way. I’d been doubtful of myself and my abilities in a science classroom, but came to discover that I could succeed and enjoy learning there.
I wanted to share my little experience with taking astronomy in the hope that you might decide to go out of your comfort zone and try taking a class that’s new to you. Even better, try astronomy! I’m so glad I did. You could say that all of the stars aligned!
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