The Sky is Always Open

The Sky is Always Open

Monica Starks has been looking up since she was a little girl. She grew up in Chicago, where light pollution swallows most of the sky, and for years, the stars were just a vague suggestion above the city glow. Then came a camping trip to Wisconsin Dells. Nighttime fell, she looked up, and the sky came alive in a way she hadn't known was possible.

"I just couldn't believe it," she says. "After that point, I just wanted to learn everything I possibly could about the stars."

That curiosity never left. Monica is an astronomy and astrophotography enthusiast, host of Southwest Florida Coastal Conversations on WNAK-FM, and the kind of person who will drive out to Big Cypress Preserve, an International Dark Sky site, just to find a cleaner patch of night. She calls herself Galaxy Gal, a nickname a friend gave her after seeing her photos. It stuck.

The Problem With a Cell Phone Power Bank

For a long time, Monica was powering her telescope rig with whatever she had on hand. A cell phone battery pack, a couple of inputs, or devices competing for charge. It worked barely and not reliably.

"I needed something consistent," Monica says. "I wasn't getting that."

When a friend recommended the Jackery Explorer 550, she looked at everything it offered, including the AC outlet, the DC adapter, the multiple USB ports, and realized it could run everything at once. The telescope computer, the astro cameras, the guiding scope, and the iPad she uses to monitor targets in real time. 

All of this equipment runs using one power source without worrying about fluctuations feeding into sensitive equipment.

She plugged everything in for the first time and felt something she hadn't expected: she stopped thinking about power entirely.

"I was so used to constantly checking what the power was like," she says. "And then I just plugged everything in, and I was able to focus on the photography. Afterward, it's like, wow. I wouldn't have been able to do it this way."

The Jackery Explorer 550 beat her expectations. On a full night session from astronomical twilight at dusk to just before sunrise, sometimes eight hours or more, the Jackery product might drop to 80% by morning. She charges it at home before each session and has run two or three consecutive nights on a single charge.

"Last two and a half years, it has worked like a dream," she says. "I have not had any issues with it."

She now owns two Jackery products. The Jackery Explorer 550 handles the full telescope rig. A smaller Jackery Explorer 240 travels separately for sessions where her son sets up his own scope alongside hers, for school visits, and for the evenings when the grandkids want to look at the moon.

Planning the Night

An astro photography session for Monica starts well before dark. She plans around the lunar cycle, timing her trips to new moon nights when the skies are darkest, and she maps out five or six shooting days on either side. She checks the weather carefully. Clouds shut a session down. Wind does too, because even a moderate gust will vibrate the telescope enough to ruin a frame.

Power planning comes right alongside weather. She's learned that running out of charge mid-session doesn't just mean losing the night, it can mean waiting a full month for the conditions to come back around.

"If you start your session and you run out of power, there goes your session," she says. "And if you're at the end of that peak time, you're waiting till the next new moon. That's an entire month away."

On a scale of one to ten, she doesn't hesitate when asked how important reliable portable power is to her sessions. "It's a ten," she says. "You don't want to not have a reliable power source."

When she travels to Utah or Maryland, she ships the Jackery Portable Power Station ahead via FedEx. It's an extra step, but she doesn't think twice about it. "You just plug that into your Jackery, and you're set," she says.

Bringing the Sky to People

Monica's seminars started small. A friend suggested she show her photos at a dinner gathering. People wanted to buy them. Then came community centers, homeowner associations, and school visits. Then, when a recent NASA lunar mission captured public attention and interest in space spiked, she organized an outdoor event that was capped at 20 registrants.

More than 50 people showed up. "It was just phenomenal," she says.

She set up three scopes that night, including hers and two friends', and walked the crowd through target after target over two hours. She positions the iPad in front of the scope so everyone can see the live image, tells people why each target matters, and lets the sky do the rest. At school visits, she's learned to run her hand in front of the lens when kids ask if the image is just the internet. Watching the picture break up is proof enough.

People still stop her in the community. You're the astronomer. It makes her laugh every time.

More Than a Telescope Battery

Monica lives in southwest Florida, which means she knows what it's like to lose power. She's been through hurricanes Ian and Irma, which had the greatest impact where she lives, while Milton and Helene brought smaller impacts nearby. She watched neighbors scramble for alternatives while she simply kept going. 

"It doesn't stop my flow," she says. "I just plug in and go."

Her son sent her a photo during one outage: the whole family gathered around a table, playing cards, lights running from the Jackery Explorer 240. It made her smile. She'd bought it for telescope sessions in Maryland. It had become something the family relied on.

Still Reaching

Monica is thinking about upgrading the Jackery Explorer 550 to take advantage of USB-C connectivity. Her Jackery Explorer 240 already has it, and the speed difference she's noticed is enough to make her want it across both units. She's eyeing new smart scope models. She has spots on her target list she hasn't gotten to yet.

But the thing that drives her isn't the equipment. It's the moment when someone stands under a dark sky for the first time and genuinely doesn't know what to say.

She remembers what that felt like: a little girl in Wisconsin Dells, looking up at a sky that had suddenly come alive. She's been chasing that feeling ever since, and sharing it with anyone who will come outside long enough to look.

"The sky is like a blanket of stars," she says. "It's warm and comforting. It gives me space to ponder life's mysteries."

Some nights she'll lock onto a target: the Heart Nebula, shaped exactly like a human heart, aorta and all, and just sit with the question of how something like that exists.

There's no answer. That's what keeps her coming back.

The Jackery Explorer 550 and Explorer 240 have been upgraded to newer-generation models.

For a similar experience with improved performance and updated features, explore the Jackery Explorer 240 v2, Explorer 600 v2, or HomePower 3600 Plus.