Utah astronomer logs 4,500 nights studying the sky

STANSBURY PARK, Tooele County — It’s safe to say Patrick Wiggins isn’t a morning person.

“On a good night, get to bed around six in the morning, get up mid-afternoon,” said Wiggins with a laugh.

Of course, when you do what he does, he needs a night sky to work.

“The clearer, the darker, the better,” he said.

Wiggins is often found at the Stansbury Park Observatory Complex in Stansbury Park near Tooele.

Using telescopes and instruments, he scans the sky, tracking things and looking for objects others have never seen before. Recently, he discovered something that took him by surprise. It wasn’t up there but rather down here in his notebook.

“It only took me 42 years,” he said with another laugh. “I consider myself a data nerd.”

Wiggins recently flipped open his notebook and realized he had just logged his 4,500th night studying the skies. All those years of exploration were written in pencil in several notebooks.

“A lot of people these days have gone to electronic log books,” he said. “No, sorry. I started back in the ’60s with those things.”

Wiggins said he has started to log his observations online, but also uses notebooks to keep track the old-fashioned way.

“This way, I have them backed up, and if I really need to find something, I know where to look,” he said. “Sometimes, I will see that I wrote something like Chuck visited tonight. But I don’t think that needs to go into history.”

It’s a testament to his love for the skies and beyond, though even he will admit it’s monotonous work.

“Have you ever heard the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result? Much of what I do is doing the same thing, looking at the same galaxies over and over and over for years and not getting a different result,” he said.

Still, Wiggins has made plenty of discoveries, such as asteroids and nine confirmed supernovas among them.

Depending on the object, he’s even been able to name a few.

“When you find something, depending on the thing you find, you can sometimes name it,” said Wiggins.

That’s why there’s an object named after Elko, his hometown, and the University of Utah, where he studied the skies earlier in his career.

While discoveries are exciting, he said one of his favorite parts of astronomy is sharing it with others, especially schoolchildren.

Wiggins is also Utah’s NASA Solar System Ambassador and has visiting many schools as a special guest teaching kids about astronomy and scientific experiments.

“Because I’m trying to inspire the next generation, or generations, in science,” said Wiggins.

Those children may never track their nights in a notebook, but Wiggins said he’s not done adding to his.

“My plan, unless something happens, is to keep doing this for as long as I possibly can,” he said.

For Wiggins, every clear night is another chance to see something amazing.

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