Introducing new folk to our hobby

[niko]

I have been asked for ages by 2 younger colleagues if they could come up and look through my scope sometime (to badly quote an ol' movie line!).

After months of procrastinating on my part we finally managed to get it together on Wednesday night. Hughie, the weather god, similed on us and it was a gorgoeus cloudless night (at least for the first half).

Young Jo has dreamed for being an astronomer since she was a kid and recounted stories of lying in her friend's backyard as kids making up their own constellations from what they could she. She admitted she still sneaks out to the local schoolyard on moonless nights to lie on her back and stare at the sky. The young fella with us was just as excited though had a slightly more philisophical view of the cosmos.

Anyway I plonked the 10" dob in the backyard and brushed off the very dusty observational skills.

First the moon through the 25mm and 8mm eyepieces. A huge "Wow!" from both of them. Then on the Jupiter where I was thrilled I could show them the moons and the bands even in Melbourne city skies. Of course we had to stop by Orion and on way to one of my favourites, the Jewel Box. Then they pushed me out of the way and cruised the sky looking for their own stuff. They found a few double stars and even enjoyed the colour of stars like Betelguese.

We swung back to Jupiter so they could see that the moons had moved. They both expressed such delight at everything they saw even though I struggled to find all that much above.

By then the clouds had rolled in and it was after midnight on a school night!

It was such fun to have such an enthusiastic audience - I have to so it again.

It also made me think we should all be doing a bit more sidewalk astronomy

cheers

niko

[omegacrux]

It's good , I set up my 8inch Dob in a caravan park an as people walk past I ask if they would like a look , the reactions are varied some people look a Saturn and say oh ok and others you need a crow-bar to remove them . A lot of people have never looked through a decent scope just doing my bit

[niko]

Good onya David! I'd like to do a bit right in the middle of Melbourne CBD though these days it's not such a great place to be after dark.

Maybe the inner suburbs instead...?

[alistairsam]

That's a great idea Niko
Even if there were a few of us with scopes in tow near places where people frequent, it would garner some interest
Only problem is that these places would be brightly lit up

I saw a video clip of the san Francisco sidewalk astronomers setup on the side of a road with trams and passerbys were showing interest

Maybe we need to create a density map of astronomers in Melbourne and we'd be surprised at how close we were to each other and arrange monthly or quarterly casual events
I'm all for it

[michaellxv]

Do it .

I just got home from one of our regular gatherings in a suburban park. We had a good turnout of members and some non members who brought their new scopes along for some help as well as others who came for a look.

It's not the ideal location for finding faint fuzzies, but it is very accessible and we had a great time.

[ballaratdragons]

Alistair, there already is a group of Sidewalk Astronomers in Melbourne, but they need more people to help achieve their goals of doing Sidewalk Astronomy.

See HERE (http://www.sidewalkastronomynight.com/internationalsidewalkastronomynight/id4.html) :thumbsup:

[Paddy]

Newstead racecourse? Not quite in the middle of Melbourne, but some good dark skies and close to Clydesdale.:lol:

[niko]

LOL Paddy

Find me a job up there and I'm in like a shot!!

[Vegeta]

I do a bit of side walk astronomy. Whenever I take the scope up to the blue mountains, we almost always stop at the three sisters lookout and invite whoever is there to come and have a look. It is educating for people who have no clue about whats above them as many are thrilled to know that the big bright star is actually Jupiter, or that the fuzzy patch under Orion's belt is actually a nebula, many light years away. The only downfall is that the light pollution can make it hard to find the faint DSO's, so I'm normally limited to bright DSO's and planets.
I have a 12" solid tube dob, and it confused one of the people looking through it, as he got down and tried to look through the bottom of the tube ("which end do I look through?"). Another person thought it was a hot water system and that i was here to install it, before he noticed the finder scope

:rofl:

[Poita]

There is a bit of sidewalk astronomy going on in Mudgee too, and it always garners quite a bit of interest from passers by.

[niko]

Yep - I alwayds get the hot water servive comment too

:lol: