The Sidewalk Astronomers Street Corner Handbook
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Published 2005-01-23 13:41:55
From Mike Kendall's old SA website
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Years ago I asked John Dobson just how many people have looked through his telescope, he answered with a straight face "Over a million". I looked at him, and told him I did't believe him, and he replied, "Well it's prorbably closer to two million".
Years later and many sidewalks used, I can honestly say he wasn't exaggerating. Hundreds of thousands of people have looked through my telescope, with hundreds of thousands to come. When I finished my first Dobsonian telescope, John Dobson signed the back of my tailgate with "Billions of eyes are waiting", now I can't say I will ever get to billions, but give me a thousand or two Sidewalk Astronomers around the world and we will. But after years of standing on street corners, and wondering why I do not find more Sidewalk Astronomers joining along, I have come to this conclussion, people are afraid to stand on a corner and be presented with questions they will not be able to answer.
When I first considered standing on a street corner with my telescope, I had already had the privilege to have spent many nights on numerous corners with John Dobson. So the fear factor was diminished greatly. That is why I hope this simple handbook can be your stepping stone to getting the dust off the old telescope and taking the risk of letting the public view things they have only dreamed of. You must realize this is the goal of the Sidewalk Astronomers, we are not a club of astronomers who go hide on top of mountains we are a PUBLIC SERVICE ASTRONOMY GROUP.
The reward you will benefit from standing on a street corners is fabulous. First I recommend you find a location that you can go back to and back to and back to. Why, because repetition is what gets the public aware of who you are. Then you will find repeat customers, and they turn into friends who will support you and give you the pat on the back you deserve.
The most important thing to remember is, if you are asked a question and you do not know the answer, be polite and tell people the truth. Tell them to come back next weekend and you will have their answer. Where do you find the answer? The internet is a plethora of information. If you still can't find it e-mail our website and we'll try to help you. ATTENTION PLEASE...Any Sidewalk Astronomer who would like to add information to this list, please e-mail me. Let's review what I consider are the top priorities in the information you must remember.
1. The Moon is approximately 250,000 miles away. 2. Jupiter averages 450 million miles away. 3. Saturn averages 750 million miles away. 4. Mars averages 40 million miles away. 5. The Sun is 93 million miles away. We call this 1 A.U. (astronomical unit) 6. A light year is about 5.6 trillion miles. Light travels at 186,000 miles a second. 7. Light will travel around the Earth 7 1/2 times in 1 second! 8. The moon is 1 1/4 seconds light speed away. 9. Jupiter is about 45 minutes light travel away. (that means you are watching Jupiter 45 minutes old.) 10. Saturn is about 1 1/2 hours light travel away. 11. Jupiter is a big ball of Hydrogen gas and is surrounded by 16 satellites. We see 4 of them at any given time from Earth, they are called Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. 12. Saturn is a big ball of Hydrogen gas and has 22 sattelites surrounding it. Through our telescopes we see up to 5 maybe 6 of these sattelites, but the biggest one we almost always see is Titan. 13. A must: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars (all rocks) Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune (all gases) Pluto (ball of ice?). 14. If Jupiter were a pumpkin and you could take off its lid you could put 1,500 Earths inside it. 15. You can put 1,500 Jupiter inside our Sun. 16. Saturn would hold about 1,000 Earths inside. 17. Stars are light years away, our closest star in the northern Hemisphere is the star Serius at 8.5 light years away, or a whopping (5.6 x 8.5) 47.6 trillion miles away.
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