From Skies to Stars - August 2013
There is No Such Thing as a “Dumb” Question
By Ed Downs
As pilots, we have all taken folks, both adults and kids, for their first airplane ride. We aviators hope that our “newbie” will thrill at the wonder of flight. As a CFI who grew up in the San Fernando Valley of Southern California, the first reaction I saw was almost always, “wow, look at all the swimming pools!” Not exactly the wonder of flight I was hoping for.
The same can be said of those who take their first look through a telescope. One would expect wonder at the size of the universe, a thrill at seeing planets “first hand,” and amazement when stars are magnified to show magnificent color differentials. But, the actual observations of “newbies” are often quite different than one might expect. Recent events offered an opportunity to hear unexpected questions first hand. With broad media coverage of the “Super Moon” in late June, a good friend could not resist his passion for astronomy and invited this writer to attend a large family gathering, complete with great food and all the accoutrements. The catch was, “would I bring my telescope so his family and guests could see this somewhat unusual lunar event.” Pilots and amateur astronomers have a lot of common interest, one of which is food, so it was a deal!
The “Super Moon,” meaning the moon is at its closest to the earth (about 221,700 miles away) and fully opposite the sun (meaning a very bright full moon), makes for poor viewing. Media also encouraged moon fans to view the moon close to sunset, as an additional optical illusion makes it appear even larger. Regrettably, being close to the horizon means a telescope must look through a lot of atmosphere which obscures lunar topographical features. None the less, we were on for a grand feast at his semirural residence and an early evening viewing. High trees along the horizon meant that the moon would be visible later than formally expected, so this amateur astronomer set up to kill time by viewing the ever popular planet, Saturn. Even with mediocre viewing conditions (clouds and dust), the Orion 12-inch reflector telescope seemed to like this ringed wonder, and it shown bright and clear. A quick flash with the scope-mounted laser finder allowed rapid alignment with Saturn and started a series of surprising questions. This simple, $80 device, allows one to “touch” the celestial object with a beam of light that quickly points the entire scope where it needs to be. Bright, and dangerous, special care must be taken to make sure no person or aircraft becomes an unwilling target.
But the real “oohhs and aahhs” rippled through the line of more than 30 adults and kids when Saturn was focused into the eyepiece. As the line of viewers moved slowly forward to see this wonder, several high-school-age guests commented on my need to manually realign the scope after each look, a quick and easy task. They were amazed at how fast Saturn was moving, in that it quickly moved out of view. In fact, with a solar orbit of more than 29 years, it was not Saturn that was moving, but the earth. They were seeing, and experiencing, the rotation of the earth. At my latitude (Tulsa, Okla.) the earth is rotating toward the east at approximately 860 mph. The telescope’s magnification not only made the image of Saturn larger but magnified the earth’s apparent rotation as well. For the first time, these kids truly understood that their home planet was spinning through space. Several of the middle-school-aged kids thought the image they saw in the eyepiece was a magnified picture of a photo inside the scope. They thought they were being tricked, unable to understand that they were seeing something that was about 798 million miles away. The concept of a telescope was completely unknown to them. A quick “scope tour” convinced them that they were, indeed, seeing the “real thing.”
The moon offered even more surprises to guests. As expected, the brightness (even with a moon filter installed) made the surface appear somewhat flat and featureless, so focus was set on the moon’s horizon, near the dramatically cratered southeast hemisphere. Some shadows existed in this region and the high magnification clearly showed the rough and mountainous terrain against a black sky. Amazement was expressed that the moon had mountains. A number of guests had thought the moon was smooth, as it looks with the unaided eye. A brief mention of the challenges faced by Neil Armstrong as he hand flew the LEM over rough terrain during the first Moon landing were met with surprise by some of the kids, not knowing that we had ever landed on the moon. This writer quickly educated those unfamiliar with the Apollo missions and gained some enthusiastic “space fans.”
The evening ended with one and all viewing the first double star system they had ever seen, the ever-popular Mizar/ Alcor pair in the center of the Big Dippers (Ursa Major) handle. Most viewers did not know that stars often live in pairs or multiple clusters. To be sure, some of the questions asked were disappointing, but the opportunity to share our galaxy with first time viewers was rewarding. New interest in astronomy was borne and curiosity was peaked. But then again, isn’t that similar to what we are after when we give that first airplane ride?
For more information on Super Moon’s see the NASA video on Super Full Moon’s at http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/16mar_supermoon/
