Woes Of A Sidewalk Astronomer

Having done public sidewalk astronomy for about 3 years now, I have encountered many situations along this journey. Some of the experiences are pleasant, while some others are not so.

Speaking of which, I believe that my fellow sidewalkers have their own stories to tell. I thought it would be interesting to share mine since I am healing from a sprained back and a few nasty insect bites from the previous public outreach session.

1) I have been given the dirty look by onlookers because they don't understand what was going on.

2) Shouted at by the mentally unstable.

3) Kids manhandling my telescope while their parents stood by and watched the world burn.

4) Inquisitions by the ultra-religous individuals.

5) Suffered nasty insect bites/stings.

6) Sprained my back doing yoga-like positions to adjust a telescope while objects were at zenith.

7) Queue cutters.

8) Wacky conspiracy theorists.

Yeah, that's about all. That being said, I still love what I do. This blog update isn't about complaints, but rather, to show people that it isn't easy to do these astronomy sidewalks and to let future sidewalk astronomers be prepared for what they are about to face when they embark upon this selfless quest.

Itchy bite marks of an insect from the previous sidewalk session. This isn't the first time I've been bitten by such an insect. The itch typically lasts for 3-4 days before it subsides.

Big Things Come From Small Beginnings

Knock, knock.

Who's there? 

U.P.S.

U.P.S. who?

U.P.S. YOURS!

Joke aside, the courier came on Monday afternoon with a parcel delivered from Germany - I had ordered some telescope accessories from Telescope Express last Friday. I was crossing my fingers hoping that the shipment had gone all right. Thanks to the people handling the logistics, the shipment and delivery time were impeccable.

2.5kg worth of stuff.

Upon inspection of the items in the box, everything was fine. I had bought a 2-inch diagonal with SCT treading, a couple of 2-inch eyepieces, and a huge telrad finder. 

Is it Christmas or what?!

2" toys.

I had wanted to go from 1.25 inch to 2 inch ever since I saw the view on Dave's similar setup. The F.O.V. (field of view) was wider and I was willing to pay more for a nice view.

Eager to test it out in the field the next day, I told the usual suspects that I would do a sidewalk at Bishan Park. I packed up and brought the entire setup to Gary's abbot. He had something fun for me to try out - a quadcopter drone!

After some drone fun, Gary and I left for Bishan Park. 

The Moon and Jupiter were already high up in the sky when we reached. I hastily deployed the 6" SCT. I had to do a little bit of work on the telrad finder by removing both the sticky tapes at the bottom of the plate and replaced them with the blue tack that Gary had brought along. After it was done, I mounted the finder on top of the SCT and went on to slot the new 2" diagonal and Badder click-zoom eyepiece. The slot wasn't exactly smooth, it was a little tight-fitting. I had to force the eyepieces into the diagonal. I guess it needs to be used often.  

Aligning the finder.

"You see at all these places you go, there are so many people terribly interested in these things. And you have to understand that the population of the Earth is several billions, with all those eyes waiting to see, all those ears waiting to hear, all those minds eager to understand. And somebody's got this job to do." - John Dobson  

The rest of the gang; Thejo, Kwan, Dave, and Ava came later in the evening for the sidewalk at Bishan Park. Thejo brought his 8" Meade SCT and the view of Mars and Saturn through it were amazing! It was thanks to him that I managed to tighten the Vixen Porta mount. The gearing that controls the altitude was coming loose and he lent me a no. 2 hex key to fasten it. Thanks to Kwan for getting us the much needed bottles of water from a nearby provision shop. 

Note the dire wolf-looking dog on the right. Yes, another 4 more days to Game Of Thrones Season 6!!!

I also realized something about myself that night - I need to get a new pair of spectacles. I had trouble looking for many deep sky objects through the telrad while Dave and Kwan was telling me it's there. They can see it while I can't.

An astronomer's worse nightmare - deteriorating eyesight.   

  

   

Boothy Call

Wait, what's that sound? Oh no, it's raining!

The heavy downpour started in the early afternoon last Saturday when we were about to leave home to do an event at 1 Degree 15, Sentosa. It was the Singapore Yacht Show 2016. 

It was a rare chance for me to try to setup a proper astronomy booth for the first time and the skies didn't quite take too kindly at first attempts. My decision had begin to waver as to whether I should bring the mobile booth along to the event. Not much time to think, Gary was on his way to pick me up in a cab. I braved the torrential rain and lugged the portable booth along.

Our plan was to reach and setup our telescopes by 3pm. Some of them would do solar astronomy, while others waited for sundown to view Jupiter. No luck to those who brought their solar telescopes - the sky was still bleak with a promise of rain.

Fortunately, the evening sky showed mercy and decided to clear up a bit at the Eastern side. James already had his 6" APM Apochromatic refractor on standby. Gary, too, had his 5" Maksutov Cassegrain at the ready. Then came the funny part. Siddarth had brought along a small, cute-looking refractor that looked like a toy. We tried looking at distant objects with it in the afternoon and strangely enough, the optics was okay-ish for a $30 telescope. It had a zoom eyepiece and the main objective lens even had anti-reflective coating on it! I stole a peek at Jupiter through it and the planet had a funky greenish hue, ha-ha-ha!     

Oh the monstrosity.

Jupiter is up!

Gary's 5" MCT and Siddarth's cute refractor.

Looking at Jupiter with the cute refractor. LOL!

Then came the time for me to shift the astro booth from the indoors to the outdoors. 

Here comes the crowd.

I tried to keep the booth as simple as possible, but not to the point of being disengaging. I had two cork boards - one with a short introduction of our Solar System, topped with a lego astronomer with her telescope, the other with pin-made constellations that I could tell a story with. Next, was the orrery board showing the phases of the Moon. It also doubles up as a board to explain the difference between astrology and astronomy. Also, I brought along two samples of meteorite fragments for the public to admire. A kid even wanted to buy one off me! Flanking to my left and to my right were an Ipad showcasing the different sizes of celestial bodies in our Solar System and a poster of Space exploration respectively.

Cork board with a depiction of the constellations.

Orrery to explain the phases of the Moon. Above, an introduction to the Solar System with the lego astronomer in the middle.

It was thanks to Ava and Gary that the booth became more interesting. Ava had offered her free astro bookmarks of Jupiter and Saturn. She had also conjured up some last minute cartoon drawings of the planets to give away. Gary brought along two puzzles for anyone who had the time and gusto to fix them. I especially love the one with the 3D effect and boy, was it trippy to look at. I felt bad when I learned that one of the puzzle pieces is now lost. Gary suspects that it went missing in the cab while we were going back home.    

Ava's bookmarks and drawings.

A very special thanks to Ava for manning the booth while I was away. Also, I would like to thank the rest of the crew; Dave, Thejo, Kwan, and Siddarth for helping me with the assembly and dis-assembly of the booth which can be quite a tedious chore.   

Lastly, thanks to Gary and Dave for the awesome pictures taken that day. 

When the crowd at James' station started to dwindle, I made my way over to take a look at Jupiter through his 6" refractor before we packed up and left. As usual, it was stunning!

Using the Ipad to make visualization of the sizes of celestial objects easier. 

Engaging the public with the astro booth!

Look son, it's Jupiter up there!

Asking a little girl to guess how many Earths could fit into the Sun's volume. I guess she was mind blown at the end. 

Telling an ancient Greek story of the constellations.

Puzzles, adults and kids were welcome to try!

The astro booth at night. I made sure that the lighting was sufficient.