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STAR STRUCK G
Brad Hoehne is always looking up at the John Glenn Astronomy Park. BY DAMAINE VONADA
etting Brad Hoehne to stand still for a photo isn’t easy. The director of John Glenn Astronomy Park (JGAP) is so enthusiastic about sharing the wonders of the universe with visitors that he constantly points out the brightest stars, waves his arms to demonstrate the paths of comets, or makes circles with his hands to show how the orbits of Earth and Mars bring them closest together every 26 months.
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OHIO COOPERATIVE LIVING • AUGUST 2022
PHOTO COURTESY BRAD HOEHNE/JOHN GLENN ASTRONOMY PARK
“It’s a joy to talk to people about astronomy,” says Hoehne. “I’ve been stargazing most of my life, and this park is a great way to bring others into the fold and get them interested in science in general.” Served by South Central Power Company, the park sits on an open patch of land within Hocking Hills State Park. It’s named for the Ohio-born-and-bred astronaut who was the first American to orbit the Earth. JGAP opened in 2018, but Hoehne had been thinking for years about creating a venue where the public could connect with the cosmos. “I got the idea in 2003,” he says. “I was giving a talk about the Perseid meteor shower, and a woman mentioned that it would be great to have a place to look at the stars on her own without having to pay something or drive for a long distance.” While hikers and outdoors-lovers prize the pristine scenery and fantastic rock formations in southeast Ohio’s Hocking Hills, the region’s distance from big city lights also makes it a natural destination for amateur astronomers. “This place is about as dark at night as it gets in Ohio,” Hoehne says. He certainly ought to know about the Buckeye State’s nocturnal skies. Hoehne, who is from Columbus, has been studying them ever since he was a preschooler and snagged a plastic telescope on a trip to COSI. Although his day job is working as a medical photographer and illustrator at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Hoehne
