First Time Observers Reactions

[26 (Paul)]

Anyone have a tale about showing first timers an amazing view through a scope?

The in-laws had a dark sky on their property north of Melbourne and loved looking up at night but had never seen a scope before.
Imagine what a 12” Lx200 looked like to them. Massive weird contraption.

My mother in law never, ever swears. Won’t even watch a movie with swearing, but when she came up to the eye piece and saw a globular cluster (pretty sure it was 47 Tucanae) she let out an involuntary “Oh F@#k”.

That was 20 years ago and we still talk about it and laugh.

[Rainmaker (Matt)]

Originally Posted by 26

Anyone have a tale about showing first timers an amazing view through a scope?

The in-laws had a dark sky on their property north of Melbourne and loved looking up at night but had never seen a scope before.
Imagine what a 12” Lx200 looked like to them. Massive weird contraption.

My mother in law never, ever swears. Won’t even watch a movie with swearing, but when she came up to the eye piece and saw a globular cluster (pretty sure it was 47 Tucanae) she let out an involuntary “Oh F@#k”.

That was 20 years ago and we still talk about it and laugh.

I do a lot of outreach these days at Mt Stromlo as well as schools and community events and we get a lot of versions of that exclamation each time we set up. I have a clicker counter for the number of viewers that have looked though my scopes, the clicker counts up to 9999 so I expect it will reach back to 0000 later this year .....

[thunderchildobs]

Many years ago, I was doing a BAS field night at Mt Coo-tha. I had just shown two Japanese students the moon, when one said "south". I pointed south. The student kept saying "south". I kept pointing south. Then it dawned on me, I said "Southern Cross". Both students started shouting "Yes, Yes". After a few minutes of finger pointing, then I knew the students saw the cross, when they exclaimed "WOW, WOW, Thankyou".

[sharkbite]

I pointed my lx90 at Orion and showed the neighbours...

One of them asked me "how far away can you see with that thing?"

The nonplussed expression when i replied "well i have it set for 1300 light years right now"....was priceless....

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Cool story Paul

When I worked at the Canberra Observatory in the 90's (for 10 years) we would get many school groups through and if the weather cooperated I would have them lined up at the eyepiece, ready to take a look at Omega Centauri and before they started the steady procession of eyeballs trying to find the right position, exclaiming "where do I look??", "stop pushing" etc.. () I would usually say, "SO! ok, ok, listen up! Nooooormally it is inappropriate to swear out loud, right?.. especially in public, right?..BUUUUT...well, you are about to see something pretty impressive, so, I have it on good authority and on this occasion and only this occasion, if you feel compelled to utter something you normally wouldn't at school, you wont get in trouble but remember!! this only applies right now at this telescope, on this object, OK??!!"

So, undoubtedly, this unexpected announcement would cause a chorus of giggles and chatter, thus building the excitement so to speak, not to mention the accompanying teachers of course, err?.. who would usually utter a nervous (what the fark did he just say??!!) laugh...

Well, you can imagine, huh? always made me laugh seeing which kid would start and how the others would follow and how they would respond and how game they would be We had varying schools, from varying socio-economic backgrounds, from all over Australia and it was often surprising who the loudest most daring ones were ...bah!..gave them something to remember, the night in Canberra some big guy in the dark told them they could swear, while looking through a telescope! .

Mike

[26 (Paul)]

Rainmaker and Strongmanmike - I never really thought about bunches of schoolkids, fantastic. They would play off each other too I bet.

Thunderchildobs. Are you sure that “south” isn’t Japanese for Fark??

Sharkbite, it’s true. It’s not just the visual but the facts and figures of what they’re seeing that can blow them away.

Thanks for replying people. Cool stories.

[AstroViking (Steve)]

Some great anecdotes there - thanks for telling them.

On a personal note, I remember the feeling of awe and amazement when I first saw M83 through a (very large) telescope. There is something very humbling when you realise just how big space is, and how far away everything is.

Cheers,
V

[Finbar (Barry)]

Several times I've welcomed passersby to have a view, some times after pleading with them, innocently approaching, to turn their torch off. One such had a couple stay with me for over an hour, and got me an invite to tour the mine he was managing.

A memorable encounter was in Richmond, Qld, (home of Kronosaurus Corner) when setting up 10k out of town at one of the fossil sites, August 2 years ago. While setting up late afternoon two young blokes pulled up, fascinated by the size of my gun (Sky Rover 130mm ap, 920mm fl) and wanting to know what I was shooting. Explained, and invited them to come back later if they wanted. They did, which made for an entertaining time, and they were duly impressed.

But the best reaction was when the younger one came back the next night with his girl friend. I think the first view was Saturn, which prompted from her, "Oh! WOW! Mum will be sooo jealous!"

She was suitably impressed with Jupiter too, but the first view of Saturn is what grabs so many people.

[Renato1 (Renato)]

Yes - I've had plenty of "Wow"s, especially on Saturn in any telescope, and Omega Centauri in a bigger telescope.

But the biggest "Wow" comes when I use my 1mW Ebay laser to point at the DSOs they are seeing in the telescope.
Regards,
Renato

[nosaj (Jason)]

Originally Posted by Renato1

Saturn in any telescope

I've had the good luck to surprise a few people with Saturn. My sister was my favourite reaction. When she said she'd be visiting, I mentioned that I'd bought a telescope the year before. She asked "What do you actually do with one? Do you, like, look at one star and say 'yep, that's _that_ star' and move on to the next star, and so on?" "There are a few more interesting things than that. Maybe I can show you some."

I parked the scope on Saturn and said "This is worth looking at."

"What am I looking at?"
"Well, what does it look like?"
"It looks like a UFO."
"It sure does. What else?"
"Um..... OH! Are those **THE RINGS**?!?!?!? OH MY GOD!!!!"

She stepped back, slack-jawed with wonder. I put a more powerful eyepiece in, and she had another look, this time actually laughing with delight. Cloud bands were visible. After she stepped back from the telescope, she looked up and said "I keep expecting to just see it by looking up." "Yeah, me too."

After that, she said "Yeah, I can see how you might never get bored of this."

Whatever the telescope, whatever we're looking at, the thing we're paying for with money and effort is Wonder. It's just great to share wonder.

[toc (Tim)]

Well...I guess to dampen those reactions I tried a few times to get my wife and kids into astronomy my showing images of the planets and moon through my C8 and old meade 12inch SCT. The best reaction I have ever gotten was a slightly enthusiatic 'Cool. Can I go back inside now?'

[Nikolas (Nik)]

Originally Posted by toc

Well...I guess to dampen those reactions I tried a few times to get my wife and kids into astronomy my showing images of the planets and moon through my C8 and old meade 12inch SCT. The best reaction I have ever gotten was a slightly enthusiatic 'Cool. Can I go back inside now?'

That's the usual reaction from my teenage son as well lol

[Rainmaker (Matt)]

Sol is the only star my wife wants to see, so she claims to be an astronomer with an interest in a very specific stellar object…

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by nosaj

I've had the good luck to surprise a few people with Saturn. My sister was my favourite reaction. When she said she'd be visiting, I mentioned that I'd bought a telescope the year before. She asked "What do you actually do with one? Do you, like, look at one star and say 'yep, that's _that_ star' and move on to the next star, and so on?" "There are a few more interesting things than that. Maybe I can show you some."

I parked the scope on Saturn and said "This is worth looking at."

"What am I looking at?"
"Well, what does it look like?"
"It looks like a UFO."
"It sure does. What else?"
"Um..... OH! Are those **THE RINGS**?!?!?!? OH MY GOD!!!!"

She stepped back, slack-jawed with wonder. I put a more powerful eyepiece in, and she had another look, this time actually laughing with delight. Cloud bands were visible. After she stepped back from the telescope, she looked up and said "I keep expecting to just see it by looking up." "Yeah, me too."

After that, she said "Yeah, I can see how you might never get bored of this."

Whatever the telescope, whatever we're looking at, the thing we're paying for with money and effort is Wonder. It's just great to share wonder.

Cool story

A common response over the years, to a first look at Saturn, has been "No!..?..do you have a picture on the end of the Telescope?"

Mike

[OzEclipse (Joe Cali)]

In my experience, solar eclipses elicit the most emotional responses. First totalities, the most extreme. In Zambia in 2001, I was in a village of 800 people. I'd been working with school teachers for a couple of weeks, using the children to push out safe observing information to their families. On eclipse day, most of the local population came into the school. One very self-confident & older man, came up to me and was basically mocking and laughing at me and could not understand why I was traveling half way around the world to look at the sun. I asked him if instead of discussing it then, if he would come back and see me after the eclipse and we would talk about it after he'd seen the eclipse. He did return after the eclipse. Tears were streaming down his cheeks. He shook my hand, his hands were still trembling, as he thanked me for helping the village to watch the eclipse safely. Then he said, "Now I understand."

This story by the usually composed Sinead Mangan of ABC WA about the recent eclipse in Exmouth is another case in point.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YweUjb-aIIc

I hosted some friends out at my dark sky property to look at Comet Leonard December 2021 & January 2022. Some of them had limited experience looking through telescopes. They were blown away by the views of the comet.

Leonard was a very unusual comet in that views through binoculars, small and large telescopes were all very rewarding in different ways. I often find that any one comet has a best instrument for viewing but Leonard was very detailed and large.

After the comet set each night, I showed them some deep sky objects. Sixteen months later, one friend still raves to me about the view of NGC 253 she saw through the 18" reflector that night.

Joe

[AdamJL]

What awesome stories. I really need to put the camera away sometimes and just use an eyepiece
Thanks for sharing!