New Sidewalk Venue?

Coffee and astronomy soon to a sidewalk near you - OK near me! Yes the nice folks at Hub Coffee Company in Reno have opened their patio to the Sidewalk Universe Guy !

The Hub is just south of downtown Reno. It is a awesome local coffee mill converted out of a old garage! I had a wonderful latte from here last year. I was doing a program nearby at a school and the teacher's aid bought me this wonderful drink from a place called The Hub. Though I do not go out from coffee very often ( to long to write about) this latte was out of this world and left a impression with me.

So on a total whim yesterday as I was thinking about new venues for my outreaches this coffee hang out comes to mind and there they are on facebook and blogspot! I thought with the location, the patio, and excellent reviews I would give it a shot, so off went a facebook intro........they said yes!

Someday winter is going to end on the Sierra foothills. April is Global Astronomy Month. My Meetup group is building with inquiring minds & hearts. The streets need a Sidewalk Universe Guy astronomer.

And I need a coffee!

http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-hub-coffee-co-reno

http://thehubcoffeeco.blogspot.com

Jumbo Styro Ball Gibbous Moon StreetAstro 2/12

Our skies are blue, the temps are early spring like, the sun is brilliant, and Luna is hanging high on the ecliptic. Along with this SUG has a new large stryo ball to hand off to inquiring folks so they too can mimic the moon's phase cycle as it meanders around the Earth. Oh the joys of hands on activities!

I arrived at my traditional station and the park traffic is busy. Setting up is a hoot as folks are coming over and inquiring. The simple observes & questions are the most profound as folks are coached in that direction. Once the environment is set they are willing and able to learn and experience more. This is where the Jumbo Styro Ball comes in. We have our Sun providing the luminance and anchor of our system, our head becomes our home world, and the JSB is our moon. Now we can model the phases, eclipses, cycles of our moon. Jumbo Styro's effect is profound!

Holly had a wonderful learning experience. This was a total eye opener for her as she held command of the moon's monthly sojourn in her hand. Now the moon's comings and goings made sense to her. These are profound revelations to folks as the moon has a cycle that can be observed, understood and enjoyed.


Phylis had a good time at the scope glued to the moon's mountains and large craters and shadow line which now made sense after her experience with Jumbo Styro Ball! She said "I never understood the changing shadows till today. I want to see what the the moon will look like tomorrow! Are you going to be here? Please please please be here!"

I think the SUG could curve out some time to help fulfill this request.

Update From SUGLand

The Sidewalk Universe Guy is busy; helping Tom with his garage sale dob ( which is coming along nicely and should be making a debut at this coming Sunday's 1/30 Meetup ) and me getting prepared and overseeing the Meetup group itself. This new outreach adventure is a bit of work on my end but the early results are very encouraging in spite of our cloudy skies for the first two events. Hey these guys want to learn! I still have other people joining Suburban Sky Explorers too, yes more too infect!

This Sunday we were clouded out but everyone showed and followed the lesson plan which included mimicking seeing the sky and orientation with the star wheels. This group really put their hearts into it and it will pay off later on when things clear!

Here's our group all bundled and warm! I had several call in sick so we were shy 3. To my left is Chris a new member as of the day before who acquired a Celestron C5 Sct NextStar Scope recently and is now seeing the need to learn the sky and put this scope to good use! We spent a half hour at the end with his scope talking eyepieces and needed items to get him ready to enjoy it. Michelle with the white hat and scarf invited the SUG to do a astro night for her ladies Meetup Group! So we will be planning this with the help of another new SSE Sarah who joined us last week but was sick for tonight's event. I hope there's some fun food at this astro Meetup with a ladies bent!


Fred and John were very much into the program and it is now starting to make sense this sky navigation. Fred and Sidewalk were very geeky with our headlamps!








Here is Chris using the power of imagination learning the sky. Once we are oriented the rest is easy!

Hoping for clear sky this Sunday!



I also did a trial run with the new solar wedge - this is one beefy item! It is built like Fort Knox and has some weight to it though CR150 was not taxed at all with this addition on his tail end. I love the built in solar finder - see the left side of the wedge that white dot is the Sun!

The image quality is excellent and the wedge eliminates all the false color and ghosting associated with achromatic refractors using lens cell mounted filters. There was no problem seeing solar granulation, solar curvature, and the two small sunspot groups just jumped out at you. The biggest thing for me will be the ease that inexperienced observers will have looking through this as it is a picture window experience with the 2" format! Next up Tom is going to help me fashion a scope mounted sun shade so my visitors will not have to squint at the eyepiece.

SUG Solar is coming to a walkway soon!

Meetup Reno Suburban Sky Explorers Update

We are kicked off and I am very excited by it all. Though my first event was weather challenged there was lots of enthusiasm and folks want to do the astronomy thing. In spite of the cold, wind and general gloominess of the day there were smiles galore and anticipation for clear skies ahead! I had 9 SSE's in attendance besides the vicarious attendance of my blog pals!




I did a general presentation on "Earth Our Moving Observation Platform" and one on telescopes. Folks seemed very glued to it all! Here's our Polar Dancing Line!




Tom and I got in a tussle as to who moves the Earth!





SSE'r Kellie is ready to go with this nice 6"Orion StarBlast scope.






And of course SUG shows his budding astronomers how to finger print your optics this way everyone knows this scope is yours!

Sidewalk Startup 2011

This past Friday started out our Sierra Foothills weekend with nice early spring like temps and blue sky to enjoy which as the Earth spins beneath us turns into dark skies to which our eyes can feast on our local universe. Day 9 Luna is looking fine in the afternoon sky and Jupiter is lurking nearby on the ecliptic road they share so I must get out to point them out!

It has been a number of weeks since my last time out so I was geared to go missing my fun sharing the sky. I have some new spots picked out to go to but not today because of time constraints I had to stay nearby at the Marina which was very busy this thaw out day! Setting up was a treat as the curious started coming by - 3-6 at a time inquiring as to what was going on. The previous day's Yahoo posting concerning the Zodiac and the wobble of the Earth was on peoples minds. This was a tremendous segway into what was before us - we do live in a changing universe and from our Earthly platform we can observe this change! So out comes the NightSky Network Zodiac poster to explain it all to a crowd of 12 and I am not at all set up yet! This is gonna be a great time out!

Of course according to Sidewalk Universe Guy's "Rules Of Effective Astro Outreach On Sidewalks Everywhere"(SUGROFAOOSE) the discussion must not end here as now they are hooked and they must enjoy what is currently at hand - a 9 day Luna Gibbous in Pisces & Jupiter in Aquarius Show. I will always make sure your one question leads you to others and why not enjoy the Zodiac right over our heads at this moment? Let's take a online news blip and make it for real.

Hector & Sylvia are busy professional people who where out enjoying this sunny afternoon and got captured by the SUG street show. They took in the full gambit this day: Zodiac, Seasonal, 2 Inch Universe presentations and detailed viewing of Luna's bending shadow line. Hector was very much at home behind the scope. Sylvia was amazed about the timing of all this - just earlier during their walk they were commenting on the Moon and the Yahoo Zodiac posting and here is the Sidewalk Guy!

Timing, a tilted wobbling Earth, and a phasing Moon are everything! 43 visitors this evening.

1/18/11 Update: Requests keep rolling in for a pic of CR150's other side so here we go! As a added feature the outreach resource table gets more and more on it all the time - just what is it that SUG does with all this stuff? Can anyone notice what is new? Where is Sidewalk Guy's snack?

The 2011 SUG Solar Program And Meetup Suburban Sky Explorers

Will here we are at the cusp of a new year and already things for this outreach minded amateur astronomer are showing steady and exciting momentum!

The Meetup Reno Suburban Sky Explorers has 2o members (several couples) that want to do some observational astronomy! I seem to be attracting the type of folks I hoped would join - folks with a interest in astronomy but little experience with it. My first Meetup is this Sunday. It will be a kind of ice breaker event with some Luna and Jupiter viewing with a couple of surprises thrown in. Weather (of course) maybe a issue.

I am excited to be kicking off the Sidewalk Universe Guy's Solar Outreach also as a part of my Sidewalk Universe Program! A key component to this arrived today via a generous donation (I will tell more about this on a future posting ) which will allow me to show off Sol's total white light spectrum safely and with exquisite detail besides being very easy in a 2 inch format for most folks to look through! This Baader Planetarium Herschel Wedge is state of the art and so well thought out. It will work great on CR150 showing very detailed granulation, sunspot fiberals, plagues etc. No more front end mounted filter - just clear aperture along with a built in solar finder! Here's the wedge:







Here is what it can do - this is gonna be fun!!!!!!

2011 Kick Off

Here's the new SUG outreach for 2011! This Meetup group is for adults of all ages, those hidden astrofiles in my area. I met so many who want to learn so now here's the chance! I will cut back on my street astro for 3 months and see how this goes. You can view the page at Meetup.com and just link over to the Reno site.

My goal is to invest in a folks who want to learn how to observe the sky. I will have a casual and fun approach because that is who I am. Many folks here use the Meetup as a way to network, meet, and be active with others with similar interests. I joined one of the hiking groups and have had a good time with it. Many here are outdoors oriented so I am expecting some to join in. I will try to contain my enthusiasm and excitement and I will not overwhelm anyone! PROMISE!!!!!!!

I will post my activities here along with the people and their stories I am expecting some good stories of discovery and fun.

By the way here's a little leftover from breakfast the other day with Tom and it was good but the leftovers where better! He is very supportive of this new effort and we drove around town investigating 2011 Street Astro sites. Thanks Tom for your support and kindness! He also ordered some new things for next years observing times - yes with SUG's coaching!!!!!