Local teen starts youth astronomy group

Andrew Hawken is aiming for the stars.

With the curiosity of a scientist and spirit of an explorer, the 15-year-old Flathead Valley home-schooler dreams of one day charting the unknown as an astronomer and is already well on his way as the charter member of the Flathead Valley Junior Astronomers.

With the help of his mother, Jennifer Hawken, Andrew has spent the first Saturday evening of every month since last June sharing his love of the heavens with other local students during meetings at Lone Pine State Park on the southwest side of Kalispell. With a pair of Dobsonian telescopes (one of which Andrew built himself) and another 12-inch telescope on loan from the Big Sky Astronomy Club, the Flathead Valley group is giving local home school and public school students the chance to step out of their houses and peer into the majestic vastness of space.

For Andrew, it offers a chance to share his passion.

“I like seeing new things and exploring a new frontier where you can see farther than anyone else ever has,” he said. “Where else can you get the chance to see things no one else has ever seen before?”

Jennifer said her son’s love of astronomy began at an early age. Unsure how to foster that interest, she bought Andrew a number of astronomy books, but it was not until he was 11 that they found a local astronomy group near their home in Fort Worth, Texas. Being part of that group truly helped his passion grow.

“It was fantastic,” Jennifer said. “We basically learned how to do astronomy as a hobby from them and then brought it with us when we moved to Montana in 2017. I jokingly call our group the Montana Chapter of the Fort Worth Junior Astronomers.”

Andrew says finding the group was one of the most important moments of his life.

“The beginning of my interest in astronomy is one of those things that is hard to put a finger on,” he said. “I’ve pretty much been interested in it all of my life, but it never rose above just a mild interest until we found the club in Fort Worth.”

Despite the extreme light pollution in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, Jennifer says the group there had a deep love for astronomy and did everything they could to help Andrew and others get into the field.

Unfortunately, local youth interest there was not strong and the group has since disbanded. But Jennifer and Andrew say they are proud to keep the group’s spirit alive with the Flathead Valley Junior Astronomers.

With the help of Lone Pine State Park Manager Brian Schwartz, Jennifer and Andrew founded the new astronomy club in May 2019 and held their first meeting at the park in June. Today, the group boasts more than 20 core members and meets at 7 p.m. on the first Saturday of every month, no matter the weather conditions. A meeting consists of an informational session, usually presented by Andrew, followed by an experiment and, if weather permits, telescope time.

Popular objects in the sky right now include the Pleiades (also known as the Seven Sisters and Messier 45), the constellation of Orion and the star at the left shoulder of Orion, and Betelgeuse, which has been making headlines recently for its dramatic dimming over the past several months.

Other favorite targets of Andrew’s telescopes include Saturn, the M13 globular cluster in the constellation of Hercules and the M51 Whirlpool Galaxy.

With the popularity of the group steadily growing, Jennifer says other state parks in Montana have contacted Lone Pine asking how they can get astronomy clubs up and running at their locations. While she is excited to help other groups get started, she says there are lots of future plans for the Flathead group, including the possibility of an astronomy campout event at Lone Pine this summer. No matter what the future brings, Jennifer and Andrew are just happy to see others enjoying the skies.

“We really want to encourage a love of astronomy and give kids the chance to do something that is real. Something that is not on a computer or television screen,” Jennifer said.

The group did have its next meeting set for April 4 before the statewide shelter-in-place order was issued by the governor Thursday. The next scheduled meeting would be May 2.

For more information about the Flathead Valley Junior Astronomers, email fvjastro@yahoo.com or visit their page on Downtomeet.com.