[AZ-Observing] Re: Hour of Darkness from Science Center
- From: "Steve Coe" <stevecoe@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2008 04:38:10 -0700
Joe, et al;
A fun weekend was had at the Antennas site about 100 miles from Phoenix =
to
the west. There was no noticeable change in the light glow from Phoenix
during and immediately after the allotted time. Too bad, I would have =
loved
to have had the light dome suddenly get half its normal size. Oh well.
The sky was clear and the wind would die off for an hour or two and then
come back and die off again. Somewhat exasperating, but during the good
times it was excellent. Lots of Winter Milky Way and zodiacal light.
Had fun;
Steve Coe
-----Original Message-----
From: az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Joe Bergeron
Sent: Sunday, March 30, 2008 1:03 AM
To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [AZ-Observing] Hour of Darkness from Science Center
The "Hour of Darkness" event at the Science Center turned out to be =20
fun, albeit not exactly for the reasons we might have predicted. The =20
"Hour of Darkness" itself turned out to be nearly peripheral to the =20
night's activities, due to the inexplicable failure to turn off any of =20
the local lights in the plaza where we were set up. The bright =20
lighting all around us completely overwhelmed any good effects from =20
the darkened buildings.
Nevertheless, we did a good job of entertaining, and perhaps =20
enlightening, the few hundred people who showed up. Under the =20
circumstances, the most popular target by far was Saturn, though =20
people could also glimpse other subjects such as Sirius, Polaris, =20
Mars, and M42. I stayed on Saturn the whole time, though about 2/3 of =20
the people who looked reacted by saying it looked fake. In a good way, =20
of course. I asked one woman how it would have to look in order not to =20
look fake, and she had no answer. Many people said it looked like a =20
picture. I pointed out that the goal of most pictures is to make =20
something that closely resembles the real thing. So it's better to say =20
that a picture looks like Saturn.
One colorful aspect of the evening was that we shared the Science =20
Center with a high school prom. Many ebullient and lavishly clad =20
teenagers streamed by, along with a few adult chaperones. A select =20
number of each group took advantage of our presence to augment their =20
high school science education by looking at Saturn. It looked fake!
Tom Polakis took a bunch of pictures and also collected Sky Quality =20
data. Jenn manned her telescope and attempted to conduct a cute =20
experiment where people would count how many Pleiades they could see =20
before and after the lights went out. Unfortunately, the local lights =20
rendered this effort nugatory. A number of other stalwart amateurs =20
were on hand to lend their eyepieces to the occasion.
Speaking of eyepieces, mine got so smeared by PFDs (Public Facial =20
Deposits) that I was obliged to clear it twice by wiping the eye lens =20
with my thumb. It cleaned up perfectly when I got it back home.
Joe Bergeron (Temporary Arizonan)
Fellow, International Association of Astronomical Artists
http://www.joebergeron.com
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