The Lamar High School astronomy class, taught by Mr. Jeff Flint, takes their learning beyond the circular planetarium of their classroom and out to the back of the school to look through a telescope at different planets and stars during their astronomy nights.

The first one of the semester was held on Feb. 18 at 7 p.m. Students looked through telescopes at Jupiter and the Orion Nebula.

Approximately eight times throughout the semester Mr. Flint hosts an astronomy night where students can look at different objects in the night sky through two different telescopes. His astronomy students are required to attend two nights.

Most of the time a classroom is rows of desks and four walls. But sometimes, a classroom is the entire night sky.

That astronomy night was the first time senior Rodrigo Chavez and junior Paige Ybarra had ever used a telescope.

"I was kind of confused at first on where to put my eye and how to move the telescope around," Ybarra said.

Both Ybarra and Chavez were surprised by the amount of detail that was shown through the telescope.

"It's better to look at the stars in person than in pictures," Chavez said. "It makes it clearer."

Ybarra agreed. "I was able to understand how they actually looked instead of just seeing a bright little dot."

Flint hosts the astronomy nights because it "allows student to see objects in real life versus the internet where it doesn't really have a personal connection. I like for them to look at the object through one telescope and then we use the camera on the other telescope to let them see the full detail."

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Astronomy class inspires students