On Sep 22, 1:25 pm, AM wrote:
Didn't see it but........

I cant believe you all are nit picking the show !!
Here we have a show about astronomy intended and
shown for the public, and yet ya all still complain.

BTW what have ya all done to get the public interested
in Astronomy ? The way some of ya bitch about Starlord,
and the show, it's almost like you want amateur astronomy
to stay a secret.......

I used to do a lot of public outreaches, and am starting
back at it again this year after a long hiatus. (couple
of deaths in family, younger kid off to war......)

Think of how many Orion catalogs ya got people. Every time
ya go to a doctors office, always leave a few behind, I
know I do. Same with small scopes. It is funny watching
people in broad daylight while I setup a little scope (ST 80)
in a park and look at the Sun. The kid's are always the first
over, followed by adults. Kinda funny to watch.

When Mercury transited the Sun, I set the C 11 up for my friends
in a big park across from my house. Wound up showing it to approx
30+ other people jogging, or just walking in the park. Most hadn't
even thought about looking at the Sun, much less a planet transiting
it. But I had a large crowd of happy and impressed people for a
while who were totally engrossed in it.

It don't get no better than that !!

Clear skies.

--
AM

A planetary transit represents the heliocentric event where a planet
in an inner orbital circuit overtakes the slower moving Earth with the
central Sun as a backdrop -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thBSD...elated&search=

All astrologers ever say is that a transit is when a celestial object
passes across an larger object as seen from Earth.The most immediate
way to express Copernican reasoning,as opposed to the apparent
retorgrades of the outer planets is through rare astronomical events
like planetary transits.About 2 1/2 minutes into that excellent video
you see how it all comes together,it is just more exhilerating knowing
that our planet is moving between Mars and Venus around the central
star.

Given half a chance,people would enjoy astronomy but not when dull
people still try to justify hypothetical nonsense that destroys the
insight Copernicus give us -

"For to the earth planetary motions appear sometimes direct, sometimes
stationary, nay, and sometimes retrograde. But from the sun they are
always seen direct, " Newton

The people who hate astronomy most are the astrologers with telescopes
and while it is fine to show celestial objects as a magnification
exercise there is little point is showing those objects in context of
an astrological/constellational/zodiacal framework.You make astronomy
dull for people and they know it.