Date: March 10, 2011
Title: Continuing Astronomy (Part 2)
Podcaster: Stephen Uitti
Organization: Ford Amateur Astronomy Club’s “Astronomy For Everyone” TV show – http://boonhill.net/faac/
Description: How did I get started in astronomy? I’m glad you asked! Part one of this podcast aired on March 2.
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 John Sandlin. The Sandlin Family wishes you all clear skies.
Transcript:
Continuing astronomy
In my last rant, I mean episode, about how I got into astronomy, there seemed to be no moment when it happened. And I left it that I didn’t do any more with it for twenty years. It’s sort of not really true. In the interim, I went to college, and earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering. The degree is a bachelor of Science. If science is the art of taking the Universe apart, then Engineering is the art of putting it back together, usually for some desirable effect. But engineers need to know how things work nearly as much as scientists do. I took science courses that you might expect, such as Mechanics and “Electricity and Magnetism”. But I also took Relativity, and Optics. I never once questioned why I needed these. The GPS system was just being fielded, and I even worked with an early military GPS chip before graduation. I don’t think it was common knowledge that the GPS system needs to take Einstein’s Relativity into account to achieve results that aren’t off by miles or kilometers. I had no idea if I’d need Optics.
And, at the time, what I really wanted to do for a living is write software. And, indeed, that’s what I do for a living. So, while getting an Engineering Degree, I was spending much of my free time with computers.
There are also moment where I seemed to know of some astronomical event. Halley’s comet. Some eclipse of the moon, locally visible. I have no idea where I got this information.
In 1989, Clyde Tombaugh gave a lecture at the Boston Science Center. He discovered Pluto, and did other work. And Jim Christie had discovered the largest Moon of Pluto, Charon. It was great to hear Clyde. And it was great to hear some of the audience questions for Clyde. In particular, some of them showed that they had bothered to read quite a bit of his background before the show, and asked very interesting questions around that material.
I should back up a bit. I find it very difficult to ask good questions. Answering them seems easier. You either know the answers, or you can quickly research them, or the question has no answer. And this last seems like a failure of the question. So, I’d either already know the answer, or it was impossible, for the most part. I know why the sky is blue, but no one knows why the Universe exists, at least not for sure.
In 1992, I found myself in Philadelphia. And two years later, the Franklin Institute invited the public to look through one of their two roof top telescopes to see the spots on Jupiter left by the comet Shoemaker Levy 9. And through that process, I discovered that friends i’d made in town were into astronomy.
They belonged to a club, had a telescope, and so on. I purchased a first class tripod and spotting scope for bird watching. I used the spotting scope for astronomical observations, from time to time. I also went out to the club’s star parties a couple times. From time to time, I cobbled together some things that I wanted to see. For example, i saw the Andromeda Galaxy without binoculars or a scope. I’m near sighted, so it would have been hopeless without contact lenses. I have a few things like that on my list still. For example, it should be possible to spot Jupiter’s moon Ganymede the same way. It needs to be as far from Jupiter as possible. It will be near the limit of what you can see, and you’ll need to block bright Jupiter from view.
Anyway, in 1997, i moved to the Detroit area. It was around that time that my father in law passed away. My mother in law forwarded his subscription to Astronomy magazine to me. I had no idea that he was at all interested in astronomy. And, I thought the magazine was awesome. Still do. I alternate between Astronomy magazine and Sky and Telescope magazine. I’d buy both if I thought I would have time to read them both.
In 2001, I had some money to buy a telescope. I researched what to buy. I wanted the biggest scope I could get for visual observing. It was a 13″ dob. Then, I asked my astronomy friends what they thought of this idea. Two pieces of advice were offered. First, I should join an astronomy club before buying anything. Second, I should think about portability. Both of these are great advice. But at first, i investigated clubs. I stumbled on Sky & Telescope’s web site, which has a great club locator. The soonest meeting of any kind was an observatory open house. It was February, bitter cold, and totally overcast. But Marty showed me and the other guests the observatory, some of the equipment, and talked about what the club was about. Thanks, Marty.
One of the telescopes was a ten inch dob. I took one look at it and decided that it wouldn’t fit in my car. My 13″ dob idea was immediately put on hold. I joined the club, borrowed every scope they had, and five years later bought my current 10″ telescope. By then, I knew exactly what I wanted.
Well, my new telescope has a computer, and tells me where to push the scope to see cool stuff. And I’ve walked the Messier list, seen several comets and asteroids, and so on. But my direction has changed a bit. Clubs always seem to be desperate for people to make it work. And I joined the board as secretary, and so on.
And the club mission is outreach. To my surprise, I found that I like outreach. If it were a church, i’d call it evangelism, and I’d avoid it like the plague. I mean, even with antibiotics, who wants the plague? But outreach is now my favorite activity. It’s like this. You bring your scope to a cub scout pack. It’s more or less clear, so you show them a few bright objects. Craters on the Moon. Saturn’s rings. Jupiter and it’s moons. And they’re generally transfixed. And so are any adults that happened to be around.
I joined a second club to get access to a nearby observing site, and a stranger thing happened. I joined a group that produces a half hour monthly astronomy TV show. Astronomy For Everyone. It goes out on public access stations on local cable. Each town has a channel and can schedule it for programming. I had no experience doing this sort of thing. For the first few shows, it was clear that we needed everyone on the team doing their job, or the whole project would fail. It’s easier now. And it’s a blast. We have no idea who watches the show. But at the big local astronomy event – Astronomy At The Beech, where the local astronomy clubs bring upwards of a hundred scopes to show the skies to thousands of people, there was at least one person who knew my name that i’d never met. I’m a star! But I won’t have really made it until the IAU has voted to kick me out of the star club.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
=====================
The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Astrosphere New Media Association. Audio post-production by Preston Gibson. Bandwidth donated by libsyn.com and wizzard media. Web design by Clockwork Active Media Systems. You may reproduce and distribute this audio for non-commercial purposes. Please consider supporting the podcast with a few dollars (or Euros!). Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org. Until tomorrow…goodbye.