Move over NASA, Humboldt has got its very own astrophotographer.
Mike Myer has called Allen County home for almost five decades, and currently works in the shipping department at Monarch Cement, but his newest passion is recording images of deep space and the night sky.
His love for cosmic things began early, becoming enthralled while watching the space race, in particular, when U.S. astronauts embarked on the Apollo missions.
“I was nine years old when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon,” he said. “I got to stay up late that night and watch him on T.V.”
He also remembered drawing pictures of Jupiter when he was young, and cared enough about the details so as to include its four visible moons.
Not long after, Myer ordered his first telescope from the Sears store in downtown Iola, which he recalled had his name emblazoned on it.
“I’ve owned a telescope of some kind for 50 years,” he said.
Years later, Myer has gone far beyond a mere casual observer, and has even been honored by the Astronomical League as the 23rd person in the world to earn a Master Observers Certificate.
TODAY Myer uses two main telescopes powerful enough to pick up objects like planets and gas clouds, some of which are outside our own Milky Way galaxy.
The physically larger of the two scopes, the Starmaster, Myer has been using to snap images of objects like Saturn.
He procured the reflective machine from a former engineer living in Fort Scott, which features an enormous 20-inch mirror in the back.
“It’s more of a video camera,” Myer explained, as they weren’t really designed with photography in mind.
In order to capture an image of something like Saturn, then, the telescope records something like 1,000 shots in a row, which can later be compressed together using a laptop.
Indeed, digital imaging and compression tools have allowed “everyday” viewers to really step up their astronomical game, whereas before the necessary equipment would have filled an entire house or garage.
Part of this increased functionally is observed in how Myer’s machine can track an object across the sky as it moves. One need only triangulate between the North Star, an additional star and one’s desired object.
MYER’S other telescope is an Astrotech EDT130, which he’s recently been using to record images of gaseous clouds far away from earth, yet still within the galaxy.
