Glacier Park - an astronomer's dream gig

Dave Ingram looked through a telescope at the sun on a hot July afternoon in Glacier National Park.

“We show the No. 1 star,” he explained. “It’s the sun.”

No worries about Ingram’s eyes. He uses a specialized telescope with a hydrogen-alpha filter that removes everything but a small sliver of the light spectrum. The sun is safely viewed as a blazing red orb, spitting out solar prominences from its edges that look like whiskers but in reality are hundreds of times larger than Earth.

Ingram is set up in the lawn at the Apgar Transit Center and his display has drawn a crowd of eager visitors wanting to get a glimpse of the sun.

“We’re looking at solar flares and solar prominences,” he said. “Raise your hand if you don’t want to look.”

Everyone wants to, of course. One fan is Erin Finan. The 11-year-old from Ohio wants to be a writer someday. She’s on vacation with her parents, and they’ve already hiked Logan Pass and Avalanche Lake and plan to stay at Sperry Chalet. This isn’t quite as fun as those places.

“But it’s really interesting,” she said as she peered into the telescope.

Ingram, the Dark Skies Northwest representative of the International Dark Skies Association, is volunteering his services throughout the summer as part of Glacier Park’s fledgling astronomy program. Ingram hosts star gazing parties at the Apgar Transit Center parking lot on most days Wednesday through Sunday from 10 p.m. until nearly dawn, with several telescopes and sets of binoculars set up for visitors to use.

A similar program is held daily at the St. Mary Visitor Center from 10 p.m. to midnight, depending on the weather. The St. Mary Visitor Center also is currently screening the documentary “The City Dark” every Tuesday and Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. The film highlights the story of light pollution and disappearing night skies.

Light pollution is a major concern in the U.S., says Ingram, a Seattle resident and retired procurement agent with Boeing. About two-thirds of all Americans live are believed to live in areas with light pollution. He noted that during major blackouts, city dwellers sometimes call 911 centers asking if the sky is on fire. What they’re seeing is the Milky Way, a galaxy they’ve never seen before because of light pollution.

Glacier Park, on the other hand, is largely blessed with spectacular night skies, where literally billions of stars blaze in the sky, and the Milky Way is clearly visible on a clear and moonless night.

“This is an astronomer’s dream gig,” he said.

Ingram said he’ll be manning the scopes through the summer until Aug. 25.