Q&A with astronomy instructor Tom English

GTCC's astronomy program has been a big draw for students and for the community, according to astronomy instructor Tom English.

The Cline Observatory has been an especially effective way to engage with the community, attracting people from all over the state to look through one of the largest telescopes in North Carolina.

As English puts it, "space is cool," but why does the study of it matter?

English discusses where his interest in space comes from, why astronomy matters to everyone, and explains how GTCC can help students land a job in the astronomy field.

What is astronomy?

The answer has changed over time. Originally, it was the study of the skies above us, trying to understand the heavens that you see above. Now, it's got much more depth to it because you're trying to understand the whole universe. Why is Mars different from Earth? What causes galaxies to look like swirly things? What's the history of the universe?

Astronomers these days are trying to understand the universe as a whole and our place in it. A long time ago, astronomy was just trying to understand the patterns you saw in the sky and how you could relate that to your general life. Understanding the patterns in the sky led to our whole concept of time-keeping. So, it went from a basic understanding to more of an urge to understand the greater cosmos.

Can you describe your background in relation to astronomy?

I'm getting reasonably close to retirement. I've been teaching for 33 years, so I'm old enough to be a child of the Apollo programs. They were going to the moon when I was in elementary school. I was a little science nerd kid in general, but space was really fascinating to me. People don't realize now how pervasive that whole space program was. Very quickly, I latched on to actual deep space, and so through school and college, I knew that was something I was really interested in.

I went to Guilford College, I was a physics major. I did a bunch of astronomy projects there, and my thesis was astronomy related. I went to grad school at the University of Georgia, I was also a physics grad student there, and I got my master's there.

So, my background technically is in physics, but it's really in astronomy and physics. All of my jobs ever since have been teaching astronomy and running observatories. I like public outreach and I like helping people understand the basics, so teaching intro courses and doing public Friday nights gives me a way to really connect with the people and get them excited about space.

What are the astronomy courses like at GTCC?

We have three courses and they're all a little bit different. The course most people take is Astronomy 151: General Astronomy I. It covers the workings of the sky, so you learn how the seasonal constellations change, why we have seasons, how the moon phases work, and then about the solar system and all the planets.

The second course, Astronomy 152, is actually the course that if you polled people and asked them, "What's the coolest astronomy stuff you're interested in?" All of those things are in that second course. People who are really interested in space should take the second course, too.

Then, if you take Astronomy 251, there's a third course you can take, which is actually the most fun course. It's the course where you learn about the sky and you learn how to use telescopes. Whenever possible, we go outside and point telescopes at things. People get the skills to be able to find stuff with telescopes on their own, they learn all the constellations, and they learn how to explain stuff to people. One of their assignments is to do an observing presentation to the students from the 151 class. People who complete this course are eligible to be official volunteers at the observatory.

If a student wants to become an astronomer and they transfer to a four-year college or university, what kind of degree would they be pursuing?

Astronomers are either geologists or physicists, typically. Planetary scientists, who study the solar system, come from the geology side, while astrophysicists, who study stars and galaxies, usually come from the physics side. You can bring any kind of science into astronomy, for the most part. There's even an area called astrobiology now because they're looking for life on other planets.

But the idea is you're going to have some sort of science major. You're going to take a lot of math. You're going to need to have good computer skills.

How does astronomy affect climate change?

There are a lot of hidden carbon emissions in astronomy, and astronomers themselves have been pretty aware of that for years and are working to mitigate it. It turns out, from the education side, that astronomy is actually a good place to talk about the impact of these climate issues because when you talk about how other planets have the properties they have, you can put the earth in context and talk about what these processes are. One of the things I've seen over the years is that people don't really understand global warming that well. Now, people know better about what it is, but for a long time, people were confused about different things and astronomy gave a really good way to just put it in context.

Why is astronomy important?

Early on, astronomy was the most important science because it gave us timekeeping. These days, we all have GPS, and there's a lot of astronomy and physics in GPS. That practical aspect is still there, but the marquee astronomy stuff is sort of wondering about the universe.

People have always wondered what's out there beyond the earth. People are curious about understanding our place in the cosmos. Are we alone? Are there other civilizations? Is there life at all out there? We won't find that out by just sitting there, we have to actually study.

How does the Cline Observatory benefit the greater community?

Well, we have one of the largest telescopes in North Carolina, so an opportunity to look at things out in space is a cool thing. We're open every Friday night if the skies are clear. You don't even need to look through a big telescope, even our small telescopes show all kinds of cool stuff. If you've never seen Saturn or Jupiter or the moon up close with a telescope, it'll take your breath away. It's really amazing to be involved in that kind of endeavor.

I think it's important to make something like that available to the community because there's a lot of curiosity about space. A lot of people who come to the observatory to look through our telescopes tell us that it was their first visit to our campus. So our program can be a draw to get people interested in what else GTCC has to offer.

What would you say to somebody interested in getting a degree in this field?

Probably the most common thing we end up talking to people about is that it might not be what you think it's going to be. You're going to need to do a lot of advanced applied math in your major courses, and you're going to need to get some computer skills. A lot of people don't like the idea of being almost a math major. You have to be committed to taking those hard courses.

If you take all the astronomy courses and realize you don't really like doing this kind of math, astronomy is something you can do on your own for the rest of your life. You can get a telescope and look at stuff, you can keep up with the space discoveries, and there are lots of astronomy clubs in communities around the country. Astronomy is something you can take with you for a lifetime.