Discussion
Science communication pro-tip I learned from setting up my telescope+solar filter on the sidewalk outside the library in a nearby small town this afternoon: you get much more positive reaction from asking "Do you want to look at sunspots?" than "Do you want to look at the Sun?"
Also, everybody who looked through the telescope was really excited about what they saw. That was fun!
@sundogplanets Great tip! “Sunspots” gives people a specific, interesting thing to look for, while “look at the Sun” can sound intimidating or confusing. A small wording change can make science feel much more approachable. https://www.tpt.it.com
You do really good stuff for people and astronomy 👏👍🙂
@sundogplanets Also: eye infections! Lol
@sundogplanets I hope you'll forgive the intrusion, Prof. Lawler, but you're a professional astronomer and thus perhaps you have a more informed opinion on John Dobson's sun-gazing telescope. It seems like a workable idea...is it? Have you any experience with it?
@sundogplanets The partial solar eclipse in I think 2023 was pretty easily visible from where I live. I went to a park and set up my camera on a tripod and solar filters and began taking pictures. I had my two late-teens kids, and a few pair of eclipse glasses with me. Everyone who walked by asked what I was doing, and I would explain and then shove the eclipse glasses at them to look through at the sun. So many people had no idea it was a partial solar eclipse that day, and so many had never experienced ANY eclipse of ANY sort up til then, and everyone was absolutely thrilled to see it! It really was a marvelous experience getting to introduce so many people to astronomy, even if it's a bare nibble. (And it was good practice for the TOTAL solar eclipse in 2024 which I did a special trip to see and photograph, but that's another story...)
@sundogplanets Awww. My friend had a good day!
@sundogplanets I did this for years, daytime and nighttime objects, with the Sidewalk Astronomers around Los Angeles. I loved every minute of it. It’s so gratifying to see people witness sunspots, the moons of Jupiter, Saturn’s rings, or craters on the moon for the first time. That moment when they realize all these things they read about or saw in photographs are right above their heads, and visible with a homemade telescope, is priceless.
@jasonposs Thank you for your outreach work! It really does make a difference.
Sidewalk astronomy in a small town in rural Saskatchewan looks a little different than sidewalk astronomy in a city!
Still good sunspots though (my new department telescope came with a cell phone-to-eyepiece holder, so I messed around with that while waiting for people to walk by)
@sundogplanets Oh I love that open design! My engineering heart just made a small jump of joy.
@sundogplanets
I have great memories of bringing my little refractor to my kids elementary school and projecting the eclipse onto a big sheet of paper and/or the side of the building. Someone had bought everyone solar glasses, but its way more fun to watch the moon transit the sun across an 8 inch projected image with sunspots and everything. My kids and I stayed out til the very last bit of moon left the solar disk. it was a special moment they both remember like 10 yrs later.
@sundogplanets that is amazing!
@sundogplanets that's how to make more scientists. I would have loved to participate as a kid and now.
@sundogplanets Ooh, I used to sell that telescope way back!
@EmpyClaw Definitely the biggest mirror-to-dollar ratio you can get! It's very decent if you don't mind not having tracking (which I don't)
@sundogplanets That was definitely the highlight for that one. We sold the ones with tracking, too. I always felt woefully uneducated, though, when a serious party came in. I knew enough to get by for the casual hobbyists.
A side effect of selling telescopes at the local Apple Specialist where it wasn’t the main business focus. But we had lots of products like that… like canoes. You always go to the Apple Store for telescopes and canoes, right? 😅
@sundogplanets I remember getting a solar filter for my telescope as a kid and could then see the sun spots. That was so insanely cool.
Now I just look at my hands. Seems the older I get the more sun spots on the backs of my hands 😟
@sundogplanets that's good! Most random people on the street are smarter than the president!
Install bonfire.cafe
Get the full app experience
