"Al" wrote in message
.. .
That's a nice story, Craig. I was interested when you said that sidewalk
astronomy is part of your job. Would you care to tell us more?

I run the local planetarium. (I'll put the "work sig" at the bottom.) We
have an astronomy club that meets at the planetarium and helps me with the
"SkyWatch" as we call it. I'm out there on the Saturday near 1st quarter.
(If it's a bit cloudy, the moon will usually still show through.) On the
following 2 Saturdays, the club runs SkyWatch on their own. Then on the New
Moon weekend there's no SkyWatch so club members can head out to dark sites
without feeling guilty. We catch people coming and going from our IMAX Dome
theater. We also have some families that come out several times a year just
to see what we're showing.

Besides that and planetarium shows, we can also be hired out to take the
scopes to schools (for example). We have one of those this week.

The first object I showed him was Saturn (he had never viewed
before)...and he just couldn't get over it. He had a rather unusual
reaction. He walked in front of the telescope, then back to the eyepiece
for another look, then asked, "Is that a picture you have in there?"

We get that on a regular basis. No other object generates that response with
such consistency. :-)

Clear Skies,
Craig in Tampa

Craig MacDougal
Planetarium Coordinator
MOSI (Museum of Science & Industry)
4801 East Fowler Avenue
Tampa, Florida 33617

email:
office: 813-987-6339
fax: 813-987-6364
web: www.mosi.org