High school senior Dhruva Kalyani comes to the Milwaukee Astronomical Society observatories several times a week – through those telescopes, he’s getting a glimpse of the stars.
“Mainly for deep sky imaging, like imaging stuff like nebulas or galaxies or things that are many thousands of millions of lightyears away,” Dhruva says.
He’s gotten so good at capturing those images, he was recognized for it by a nationwide organization called The Astronomical League.
“I won the Horkheimer Parker imaging award,” Dhruva says.
It’s the highest possible imaging award offered to youth – and wins like this are why the Milwaukee Astronomical Society is trying to attract more young people.
“The younger people are going to be the future,” says Susan Timlin, the society’s treasurer. “They’re going to be the future scientists and space explorers and all the technology involved, they’re the future.”
Susan lived through the Great Space Race of the 1960s, when NASA was trying to put a man on the moon. A lot of other members remember that time, too.
“Truthfully they talk about astronomy being a greying hobby,” Susan says. “In other words, most people are older people, like me.”
But lately, Susan says Milwaukee Astronomical Society has seen a ton of young people. William Gottemoller is just one of them.
“We’re going to be the ones leading the club eventually!” he says.
William is also a highly decorated member of the society, winning three major awards over the last two years.
“The Milwaukee Astronomical Society is the reason I got into Harvard,” William says.
William’s essays and letters of recommendation were all about his time serving on the Milwaukee Astronomical Society board, and his photography projects.
“I’m planning on concentrating in astrophysics in September when I arrive at Harvard,” William says. “And I think a lot of it just comes down to passion. I spend so many hours here and I never get tired of it.”
Dhruva has similar goals, but he has one more year of high school to finish up. So he’ll spend a little longer shooting for the stars.
“I live like ten minutes away and the fact that this is just right here? It’s like [mind-blowing], yeah.”
The Milwaukee Astronomical Society hosts open houses throughout the year. For more information, follow this link: https://milwaukeeastro.org/
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