On every 15-minute trek to Sargent Hall, Lynn-Clara Tun of Edina, Minnesota, said she stops to admire a peculiar silver dome-shaped building. So, when she spotted a flyer that said the Dearborn Observatory hosts public viewings from 10 to 11 p.m. on Fridays, Tun knew she had to go.
“There’s a lot of light pollution in Edina just because it’s right outside of the city, so I don’t really see the stars that often,” Tun said.
Tun said she saw the flyer during the second week of the program, but made the time to go with friends the week after.
The appreciation for stars extends to cherubs like Sarah Schwartz of Newton, Massachusetts, who compared her experience seeing the night sky to the first time she saw fireflies on campus.
“(Seeing the fireflies) was so beautiful,” Schwartz said. “And honestly, I still get the same amazement every time. That’s what you get with stars, too. You look up and it’s like, ‘Wow. They’re really up there.’ You take the time to appreciate the beauty.”
While Schwartz and Tun said they enjoy looking at the stars, Maya Segal of Raleigh, North Carolina, said the highlight of her trip to the observatory was something else.
“It was very clearly not just a Northwestern campus thing,” Segal said. “It drew in the greater Evanston community.”
Some cherubs said stargazing provided them a pause in their week, which was worth the added stress of finding time amidst looming article deadlines and curfews.
“Yes, there’s a very busy schedule. And yes, you probably always have something that you should be doing,” Schwartz said. “But these weeks fly by, and it’s the moments where you do that spontaneous thing you’ll remember the most.”
