The night sky twinkled with an infinite allure as Scott Kardel steadied his telescope, awaiting a perfectly timed moment. It was nearly 2 a.m., the kind of late hour that most college professors spend asleep, resting up for another day of lectures and grading. However, on this particular night, Kardel wasn’t bound by the usual demands of academia. Instead, he was on sabbatical, free to chase every celestial wonder he’d spent years teaching his students about.
Peering through the lens of his telescope, Kardel caught a faint smudge of light flickering.
A distant exoplanet orbiting a star hundreds of light-years away had just passed in front of its sun — a momentary dimming, barely perceptible, yet crucial to understanding worlds beyond our own. It was the kind of research he had dreamed of doing, yet rarely had enough time for between faculty meetings and exam prep. This sabbatical had changed that.
Kardel’s journey wasn’t just about scientific discovery. It was about what happens when educators are given the time to explore, to learn, and to return with renewed passion — not just for their field, but for all the students who look up at the night sky and wonder what’s out there.
“What’s nice is the college offers you this opportunity to do stuff that you ordinarily wouldn’t have time to do,” Kardel said.
This is precisely why sabbaticals exist. Sabbaticals have long been a crucial part of academic life, giving educators the space to pursue in-depth research, travel or creative projects.
For Kardel, who has been teaching at Palomar for nearly a decade, this opportunity was invaluable. He is currently an associate professor of astronomy in the Earth, Space & Environmental Sciences department at Palomar College and is the assistant director of the Palomar College Planetarium. Outside the classroom, his research supports Unistellar and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute, where he volunteers.
Before coming to Palomar College, he worked at Palomar Observatory. He’s also worked with the International Dark-Sky Association, now known as Dark Sky International, and Lake Afton Public Observatory. With decades of experience in astronomy and science education, he was well-prepared to take full advantage of this opportunity.
Palomar College’s sabbatical requirements call for 640 hours of total work, and Kardel’s proposal dedicated 320 of those hours to astronomical observations. On paper, this seemed like a reasonable plan with about 20 hours of sky-watching per week.
Reality quickly proved more challenging.
Observing the night sky isn’t as simple as just pointing a telescope and taking notes. Clouds, light pollution, and even personal life could interfere with his ability to observe his little lights.
Under the time constraints of a typical semester schedule, those challenges would have completely impeded most research.
“The astronomical observations I made were often late in the night or early in the morning, and it’s really not conducive to do that and then teach a class right afterwards,” Kardel said.
For astronomers, timing is everything. Celestial bodies move in sometimes unpredictable ways, and observations have to be timed perfectly to capture valuable data.
Tasks like taking a photo at the exact same time every day for two weeks require a level of flexibility that most teaching schedules simply don’t allow.
With the freedom to dedicate uninterrupted time to research, Kardel turned his attention to one of astronomy’s most exciting frontiers: exoplanets. These distant Earth-like planets orbit stars like our sun and have opened up a new understanding of what the universe holds.
“They’re planets that orbit other stars, and when I was [19], the number we knew of in the universe was zero, and it’s over 5,000 now,” Kardel said.
One of the key challenges in exoplanet research is determining their orbits. Kardel’s sabbatical gave him the chance to contribute to NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission, helping track planetary transits by collecting data from those brief moments when an exoplanet passes in front of its star, causing a subtle dip in brightness.
The research into exoplanets is largely connected to the possibility of life in the universe aside from here on Earth.
Not only are they searching for planets humans may be able to inhabit, but ones that may already be populated. Kardel explores this particular field of interest in his Life in the Universe class.
Kardel gathered data on a large number of exoplanets, including the poetically attributed planets TOI1259A, TIC362220946.01 and HATP32b.
Alongside this major task, he captured photos of the sun and moon for two weeks straight, observed asteroids, nebulas, and galaxies, and even captured amazing photographs of the comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, which was visible in the night sky during October. All of this adds up to about 10 gigabytes of data and photographs.
A glowing plume of gas and dust trailed behind the comet, its tail stretching across the night sky. However, a closer look revealed something unusual: a dark line within the tail. Kardel explained this was the shadow of the comet’s icy nucleus. Astronomers are working to be able to tell the size of the comet from the angular size of that shadow.
“So I was very happy about that,” Kardel said.
Another rare observation obtained from that comet was its anti-tail. According to Kardel, the tail of a comet always points away from the sun, but this anti-tail can be seen pointing in the opposite direction. It’s a simple trick of perspective.
When the viewing is right, in this case the comet was crossing the plane of the orbit of the Earth, dust in the orbit of the comet can be visible. It appears to be shooting out of the comet, as the tail does, but is simply illuminated particles in the comet’s path.
“It’s something I read about and never observed before, so this was also very exciting for me,” Kardel said.
Kardel has always brought this feeling of awe into his classroom, igniting passion in his students the same way he experiences it.
Safiya Swearingen, an Associated Student Government (ASG) President at Palomar, took Kardel’s lab where she had hands-on experience with the materials covered in class. Seeing the celestial bodies with the naked eye through Kardel’s telescope added an engaging and fascinating layer to learning in the classroom.
“I enjoyed both the lab and lecture so much, I contemplated switching to be an astronomy major. I’m transferring after this semester, and I would say he’s one of the best professors I’ve had at Palomar,” Swearingen said.
Perhaps one of the most serendipitous moments of his sabbatical came just by chance. Kardel had taken a photograph of a distant galaxy, unaware that just two weeks later, a supernova would erupt in the exact same location leaving remnants of the star he had previously photographed.
“That was really special. Seeing the comet was really special, and just having the opportunity to take lots of pictures of astronomical objects that I think are just beautiful objects,” Kardel said.
Now, a research team in Europe is doing complicated analyses of the data he collected on comets and asteroids, using it to generate detailed models. Using Kardel’s analysis, they can create files that can be sent to a 3D printer, allowing scientists to produce a tangible representation.
“I’m looking forward to be able to hold a version of an asteroid whose shape I’ve helped find,” Kardel said.
A final unexpected moment of astonishment for Kardel was being able to see and capture the Northern Lights from his home. He leaves whether he would have caught it or not while teaching up in the air as the sheets of color formed in the sky just around 8 p.m. Though unexpected, it was a valuable memory to have.
These opportunities to unapologetically jump at the chance of discovery are important to form and motivate encouraged and enriched professors. By stepping away from the classroom and fully immersing himself in research, Kardel returned not only with new discoveries but with renewed enthusiasm that directly benefits his students.
“I liberally pepper the lectures with the pictures I took … I hope that, for the students at least, gives them a better sense of ‘I’m actively involved in this,’ and I’m not just talking about this because it’s my job,” Kardel said.
His endeavors during his sabbatical were all but a break from work. He was given the opportunity to deepen his understanding of astronomy, and through that he is now able to bring even more in-depth, real-world examples to his classroom.
That passion doesn’t go unnoticed by his students.
Palomar student Edris Arzo, like many college students, trudged through the first few semesters of their college career, undecided on a career and lacking enthusiasm. Arzo is now pursuing a minor in astronomy as a secondary degree after taking Kardel’s class.
“Thankfully, I decided to take Professor Kardel’s Astronomy 100 course, and for the first time, I felt like I could see the future ahead of me. Professor Kardel’s passion fueled mine and I have taken every single one of his classes offered at Palomar College,” Arzo said.
Kardel’s experiences and discoveries weren’t just personally fulfilling — they actively enrich student learning and inspire the next generation of astronomers.
“For anyone, whether it’s a music teacher, or someone in the arts, or someone that is writing their own textbook, to have that time to be able to go and work on a project … it’s nice to be able to have that opportunity,” Kardel said.
And in the end, the time away only reinforced what he already knew.
“Being away reminds me that I miss teaching,” Kardel said. “I miss getting to know my students and interacting with students and doing things to hopefully make things better for them ‘cause I really do like teaching a lot.”
