Podaster: Shane and Chris
Title: Street Astronomy
Organization: Actual Astronomy
Link : https://actualastronomy.podbean.com/ ; https://www.deepskyeye.com/
Description: In 2017 Bill Green brought his telescope to one of Philadelphia’s most crowded and light polluted corners and has had a line up at his telescope ever since. An optical Engineer by trade Bill carries on in the tradition of John. Dobson teaches people how to enjoy the night sky and his organisation Street Astronomy has groups in Philadelphia, Brussels and Berlin.
Bio: Shane and Chris are amateur astronomers who enjoy teaching astronomy classes and performing outreach where they help the eyes of the public to telescope eyepieces.
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Transcript:
Street Astronomy on Episode 426 of the Actual Astronomy podcast. I’m Chris and joining me is Shane. We are amateur astronomers who love looking up at the night sky and this podcast is for everyone who enjoys going out under the stars.
In 2017 Bill Green brought his telescope to one of Philadelphia’s most crowded and light polluted corners and has had a line up at his telescope ever since. An optical Engineer by trade Bill carries on in the tradition of John. Dobson teaches people how to enjoy the night sky and his organisation Street Astronomy has groups in Philadelphia, Brussels and Berlin.
Welcome to the podcast Bill!
Tell us about Street Astronomy?
I was reading on your web site the goal for your Street Astronomers is to get 100,000 new observers of the cosmos, you just need 20 additional people or something. So I know we have people listening in your cities and we are going to put this out on the 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast so this episode will reach a ton of amateur astronomers. How can people join?
How did you get into astronomy?
What telescope(s) did you start with / have now?
Can you tell us about your day job as an Optical Engineer? / Working at Edmund Optics?
APM telescopes?
Do you go to dark sky sites?
Concluding Listener Message: Please subscribe and share the show with other stargazers you know and send us show ideas, observations and questions to actualastronomy@gmail.com
Rain, Grasslands, Aurora and Smoke on Episode 427 of the Actual Astronomy podcast. I’m Chris and joining me is Shane. We are amateur astronomers who love looking up at the night sky and this podcast is for everyone who enjoys going out under the stars.
Patreon Supporter to thank: Jose who wrote us a nice email about the positive impact our podcast has had during a difficult time and we appreciate your kind words as well.
Overview:
- Our time off started with rain late the week before, the weekend was ok but Monday to Wednesday was one of the biggest rain storms with 2-3 inches of rain blanketing the south and central prairies. With even more to come this week we are out of nearby fire risk.
- The Thursday onward looked good, Shane went to Grasslands and I came out to my cabin to get some work done here.
- Saturday May 11th the smoke rolled in around 5 pm, there are some huge fires burning in NE BC and some in the NWT.
- So we had the biggest rainstorm in years, followed by some clear skies then smoke.
Rainy Days
- How was the wet part of your week Shane?
- Did you use this to pack, plan your observing?
- I spent some time in the observatory, bit of water got in…not too worried as it rained in these big fist sized drops soI’m guessing they went in round the rails or window or drop down…I went up on Tuesday and there looked like a puddle had formed and drained.
- We’re going to put in some drains / floor vents since it’s virtually impossible to seal out all water when it rains like this. Even in the house some of our older windows had water come into the second set of pains and there was water around our back door.
Clear skies and Aurora
- How was Grasslands?
- What did you observe?
Melotte 111 – https://www.rasc.ca/sites/default/files/publications/JRASC-2020-04-lr.pdf - What scopes / equipment did you take?
- How did the oTentik work out?
- Was the campground busy?
- Was anyone else observing?
- How was the Aurora from down there?
- How far south did it extend?
- How bright was it from there?
- Did the Aurora extend over the entire sky?
- Clutch Handles, WiFi, Keychain, Curtains, Angle Iron, Cement, 7up
Concluding Listener Message: Please subscribe and share the show with other stargazers you know and send us show ideas, observations and questions to actualastronomy@gmail.com
365 Days of Astronomy
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