Date: March 2, 2011
Title: Getting into Astronomy, Part 1
Podcaster: Stephen Uitti (“Steve Witty”)
Organization: Ford Amateur Astronomy Club’s “Astronomy For Everyone” TV show
Link: http://boonhill.net/faac/
Description: How did I get started in astronomy? I’m glad you asked!
Bio: Stephen Uitti is a Mechanical Engineer, computer programmer, and amateur astronomer. He belongs to two astronomy clubs, and contributes to the Astronomy For Everyone TV show.
Today’s sponsor: This episode of “365 Days of Astronomy” is sponsored by — no one. We still need sponsors for many days in 2011, so please consider sponsoring a day or two. Just click on the “Donate” button on the lower left side of this webpage, or contact us at signup@365daysofastronomy.org.
Transcript:
Getting into Astronomy
This is “Steve Witty”, for 365 Days.
How did I get into astronomy? I’m glad you asked. The short answer is that I have no idea. That’s why this is a two part episode. When I was a small boy, the family had a small refracting telescope from Sears. It was pretty good, which isn’t what i can say for small refractors you can get today from department stores, grocery stores, toy stores and discount chains, even if the scope carries the brand name from otherwise
repudible instrument makers.
The Sears refractor had a big lens that was maybe 50 mm in diameter – that’s 2 inches. It had a non-replaceable eyepiece, and was mounted on a small but sturdy table top tripod. You’d point the scope, and it would stay there. There was no finder scope. What made it good was that all the parts they provided
were usable. It probably provided somewhere between 15x and 25x magnification. This is low enough power to find things, and high enough power to see things, but not so high as to produce dim or grainy views.
I had no guidance. No one i knew had any idea what kinds of things there were to look at or where they might be found. There was a picnic table in the back yard. I remember setting the scope up on it on a summer day and using it to look at things near the ground. Tree limbs. A telephone pole. Things across
the yard, and things that were as far away as could be seen. And this was good practice. Finding things. Focusing. Getting used to seeing things magnified and upside down.
I wasn’t in a hurry. So i have no idea how long it was before i pointed the scope at the Moon at night. But when i did, i could see craters, bright and dark areas, and so on. I doubt that i knew anything about these features. I didn’t keep a log. I don’t even know if I could write at the time.
At some point, I had a desk in my bedroom. It was set in front of the window. So i set the scope up on it and pointed it out the window. The disadvantage of doing this is that window glass introduces distortions that are plainly visible even when using low power binoculars. It didn’t bother me at the time. Also, i
could only see a small part of the sky. My bedroom window faced a nearby house, which blocked the entire horizon. However, i could look as long as i wanted, even if it was cold. I probably had one of those kid’s astronomy books, maybe from the Golden series or something. I don’t recall that it was very helpful.
Most of the stuff in the sky are stars. And a star looks like a dot to the unassisted eye. And, stars looks like dots in even large telescopes. I don’t think i knew to look for colored stars. And i watched alot of black and white TV, so i probably wouldn’t remember a red star if i’d seen it. Frankly, i wasn’t impressed with stars. But, I’d heard of planets and knew that Saturn had rings. So, from time to time, i scanned the sky. I eventually saw Saturn and it’s rings. It was really small. But it was also really cool. Yet, i don’t remember jumping up and telling anyone that i’d seen something really cool. Even much later in high school, i didn’t do that sort of thing. I do now. Well, maybe not jumping, but at least telling.
One summer, my folks sent me to an astronomy day camp. Well, it would have been a day camp, except that we started each day late in the evening, and stayed to pretty late at night. It was late summer, and the Sun didn’t even set until 9 pm or so. Each day started with an hour lecture, often with pictures and diagrams. I don’t remember these very much. But i probably absorbed everything like a sponge. When it got dark, there were a dozen or so six inch (150 mm) Newtonian Dob scopes. They were big. I mean, I was pretty small. Honestly, i don’t remember using them. What i remember is that there was a big refractor in a domed observatory. It was totally huge. I remember that it was 20 inches in diameter. This is almost certainly wrong. But one night, they showed us Saturn with it. There was totally gorgeous detail. The rings had detail. Moons of Saturn were clearly visible. But even then, for me, it’s not the gorgeous views that
mattered. It mattered more to me that i knew what it was that i was looking at. Even a little. Saturn is a planet, like the Earth i’m standing on, only much, much bigger, and with no solid surface. And though no one knew at the time what the rings were made of for sure, the speculation was that they were made of bits
of water ice – which was something i’d skated on in the winter. And that’s still with me. On my list of things yet to see is a quasar that’s over 2 billion light years away. I should be able to find it with my current ten inch scope. It’s going to be a dot, just like a star. But the photons have been traveling for half of the age of the Earth, only to crash into my eyeball.
Anyway, i went to boy scout camp when i was 13. i knew in advance that there was going to be a partial solar eclipse while i was there. I brought the scope, and had a plan. I brought a notebook, a plain white piece of paper, and a camera. Just before the eclipse was going to start, i announced to the troop that i was going to show the eclipse in the parking lot. i told everyone not to look at the Sun directly, since it could cause permanent damage to their eyes.
I grabbed the scope, the notebook, the paper, the camera, and a chair, and headed to the parking lot. I set the scope up on the chair, found a rock, and propped the notebook on it. I pointed the scope at the Sun, and focused the image on the white paper, taped to the notebook. This is eyepiece projection. I don’t
remember practicing any of this in advance, but it worked.
The partial circle of the Moon took a bite out of the Sun. The whole area cooled down for an hour or so. Everybody got to see it, and more or less at the same time. And I took pictures.
Well, one of the kids, he was a little older – so he was a teenager. Teenagers are stereotypically defiant and stupid, right? Well, he couldn’t resist looking at the Sun. I told him not to again, but what could i do about it? He looked for a few seconds. And while he saw the eclipse, he also reported seeing spots for hours. I think he was OK in the long run.
I was cleaning the basement a few weeks ago, and stumbled on the pictures. There’s the dirt parking lot, several of the kid’s sneakers, and of course, the eclipse. There are several shots, and you can see the image cross the page, then everything gets moved to line it up again. If i had to do the event over again,
i’d do it pretty much the same way. These days, i have a ten inch scope, with a full aperture solar filter. But i’d likely set up binoculars on a tripod, covering one ocular, and doing projection. The solar filter is really cool, but more people can watch the projection at a time.
It was twenty or so years later before i did any more astronomy. But that’s another story. One thing I’ll say about the story so far is that i’d have gotten much deeper into it if i’d had some sort of guide. And guides are now available for you or your child. Astronomy clubs almost always have outreach as their primary mission. With the internet, you can find a club near you. In the Detroit area, there are eight such clubs. They all have public events. And once a year, they combine, and bring 70 to 100 scopes out to a park and show thousands. You can look up clubs on the Sky and Telescope magazine web site – look for Organizations.
That’s all for now. I hope you enjoyed the show.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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