[AZ-Observing] Re: Hour of Darkness from Science Center
- From: "Rick Tejera" <saguaroastro@xxxxxxx>
- To: <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2008 09:06:58 -0700
Joe,
If I had a nickel for everyone that said Saturn looked fake (one even said,
half seriously, that I had panted it on the eyepiece), I could buy that 20"
Obsession.
I like your responses. OK if I license them for future use :)?
As for the PFD, That's why I have a cheap (Actually free) old 20mm Edmund
Ortho eyepiece. That's what goes in the scope during public SP's. I don't;
have to worry about fingerprints & such on the $200 chunks-o-glass.
Clear Skies
Clear Skies
Rick Tejera
Editor SACnews
Saguaro Astronomy Club
Phoenix, Arizona
www.saguaroastro.org
saguaroastro@xxxxxxx
-----Original Message-----
From: az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Joe Bergeron
Sent: Sunday, March 30, 2008 1:03
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
fun, albeit not exactly for the reasons we might have predicted. The
"Hour of Darkness" itself turned out to be nearly peripheral to the
night's activities, due to the inexplicable failure to turn off any of
the local lights in the plaza where we were set up. The bright
lighting all around us completely overwhelmed any good effects from
the darkened buildings.
Nevertheless, we did a good job of entertaining, and perhaps
enlightening, the few hundred people who showed up. Under the
circumstances, the most popular target by far was Saturn, though
people could also glimpse other subjects such as Sirius, Polaris,
Mars, and M42. I stayed on Saturn the whole time, though about 2/3 of
the people who looked reacted by saying it looked fake. In a good way,
of course. I asked one woman how it would have to look in order not to
look fake, and she had no answer. Many people said it looked like a
picture. I pointed out that the goal of most pictures is to make
something that closely resembles the real thing. So it's better to say
that a picture looks like Saturn.
One colorful aspect of the evening was that we shared the Science
Center with a high school prom. Many ebullient and lavishly clad
teenagers streamed by, along with a few adult chaperones. A select
number of each group took advantage of our presence to augment their
high school science education by looking at Saturn. It looked fake!
Tom Polakis took a bunch of pictures and also collected Sky Quality
data. Jenn manned her telescope and attempted to conduct a cute
experiment where people would count how many Pleiades they could see
before and after the lights went out. Unfortunately, the local lights
rendered this effort nugatory. A number of other stalwart amateurs
were on hand to lend their eyepieces to the occasion.
Speaking of eyepieces, mine got so smeared by PFDs (Public Facial
Deposits) that I was obliged to clear it twice by wiping the eye lens
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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