Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Under The Stars And Streetlights With Everyday People Sparks Marina Street Astro


Tim and Felicia are local residents of the Marina neighborhood and have been keeping a keen eye on the activities of this stranger and his telescope. What are his neighbors and other Reno-Sparks people getting so excited about anyway? Well in spite of a hurting right ankle from a July 4th fall Tim and his Mrs. wheel on over to the cosmic outpost(which was no small feat with a wheel chair Tim was employing at this time) of yours truly and embarked on a journey that will span the galaxy and beyond. Stars we see across the sky are different ages, temperatures, sizes/mass, and distances away from us. Of course stars lead us to other things like galactic structure, size, distance. By the time we where done a hour plus later this nice couple had a much better understanding of these things and a lot to think about. Tim made many observations in spite of his hurting foot, and I could see the wonder of it all in Felicia's face............. now they are ready to do a Lunar viewing come Sunday night with the Sidewalk Guy. They are going to encounter Luna in a big way folks!

Alex and Angela are your typical young couple people with lots to talk about and do. But astronomy is for most young people something not on the to do list of life. But as fate would have it they run into the Sidewalk Guy as they take a stroll around the park. They stop and listen to my star talk with other visitors and are soon engaged in a big way! After numerous views of stellar combo's dancing in the night including Polaris, 61Cyg, Beta Cyg, Gamma Lyr they are hooked in to this astronomy thing. How about comparing the color and brightness of stars with our eyes with the aid of a laser pointer? These guys where starting to understand this star thing is really very special if you take a little time to just look for yourself. Oh look there's Jupiter - lets have a peek. Now we have to be exposed to gas giants and we need to understand these a bit more after some WOW views! "What about Pluto?" asks Alex. How can I not answer this? Now it's Neptune time, yes that little blue dot near Jupiter is a massive Ice Giant Planet on the fringes of our Solar System neighborhood. These guys show no signs of calling it a night! "Why not come by on Sunday evening about 8 p.m. for a little walk across the Moon" I suggest. Not quit as good as a ticket to the latest concert but pretty good I think. They are planning accordingly!

8 comments:

Marc Fitkin said...

Nice show Mr. Sidewalk, but I won't be out anytime soon being socked in with mixed skies. So hopefully next week if we are lucky unless something changes drastically, otherwise I'm out of action.

NiteSkyGirl said...

hey where can i get them neat bookmarks to download and printout? love it!

Drive-by Astronomy said...

SUG is back at the marina and is on fuego! Richie, you are the best. I'm waiting for that news crew to cover your astronomy gig down at the marina. I know you put on a fun and interesting show and provide some amazing views.
Unfortunately I've been pretty lack with my outreach lately but we're also having our wettest and coldest summer in many years. I'd like to be there Sunday for the lunar performance.

Sidewalk Universe said...

Hey Mr.Mark, sorry to hear that the atmospherics are not on your side - I hope Dr.Drive By stopped by your Drive-In!

Hey NSG, contact the ASP in S.F. CA and they can get you hooked up. Talk to Kenneth Frank or Marni Berensen or Vivian White. They are the lead folks with the NASA Night Sky Network. Don't tell them you know me!HAHA.

Dr.Drive By I am gonna have to go by you and smack you with a boccie ball. Your more than welcome to come to Reno and help out with a program or two, but the folks in Buffalo will miss out and we cannot have that Guido. If you do come to Reno make sure you bring your TV 101 and new eyepieces with you Doc!

On a fuego - cool! What is it?

NiteSkyGirl said...

I've heard the words ' it's the littlest things that make us stop and say wow this is an amazing ride ' in life.
How interesting that people seem to be finding you now, i've noticed that. I'm sure they will enjoy the moon ! They reminded me of j a video of Jon Dobson who takes his scope out and will yell ' we're looking at the moon come and look ! ' and people actually looked at him wierd and he said have a look i'm not nuts you know just look! he gets them thinking with his facts about what they are saying.

i get a kick out of his line .. the universe is alot bigger than the earth is , alot bigger than our solar system is and we owe it to ourselves to notice it .

i think it would be neat seeing the sidewalk dude in a video snippet doing what he does ;)

NiteSkyGirl said...

AND i say ! i not only notice the universe, i live it!

NiteSkyGirl said...

sidewalk astronomers in action video .. for got to add it ..


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJwztv7mktQ

what makes me laugh is when she is driving where the cars and streetlights at :58 are it's cloudyish above! hillarious. at 1:35 the kid with the red hat made me burst out laughing, love the honesty of what he was looking at !!

Sidewalk Universe said...

Hey NSG - love that John Dobson quote!

Fun video clip, Jane and her husband are neat outreach folks. Your observational skills are sharp NSG, yes they were driving right into the cloudy skies! Why is it that the clouds seem to fellow us around?

The young boy with the red hat seemed impressed!