(meteorobs) Why don't more amateurs get it? (Meteors, that is.)

Skywayinc at aol.com Skywayinc at aol.com
Thu Sep 20 00:14:23 EDT 2007


 
In a message dated 9/19/2007 9:14:09 PM Eastern Daylight Time,  
Lew.Gramer at noaa.gov writes:

During  this relatively quiet period of mid-September, I wanted to
put a question  to our forum: why is it, that something so simple,
so easy, so beautiful,  so significant, and so FUN, simply fails to
capture the imagination of most  newcomers to astronomy? Why
aren't ALL our fellow amateurs out there with  lawn chairs, before
they even pick up their first pair of binoculars? What  is missing?





Basically, it goes along the same lines as why people who suddenly 
get the itch to get into astronomy immediately rush out to buy an
expensive telescope.  Binoculars are cheaper and easier to  handle,
but far less "seductive."  People equate astronomy with the  craters
on the Moon and the rings of Saturn; peering into an eyepiece and 
observing the wonders of the universe.  Not sitting down on a  lawn
chair and staring up into the night sky.
 
And unfortunately . . . light pollution is the other part of the  equation; 
to 
get a really good view of meteors (or a predicted shower), you have
to get to a location with a wide-open view of a reasonably dark 
sky.  How many people are blessed with such conditions right 
outside their front door?  Many of us will pack our cars with  ground
cloths and sleeping bags and travel an hour or two to a suitable 
observing site.  But most newbies and neophytes aren't going to go 
to such extremes (especially in this, the era of "instant  gratification").
 
Even a city dweller can set a scope up on a brightly lit street  corner
and look at Jupiter's moons or the crescent of Venus.  But sit
around and wait for a shooting star to come along?  Sadly . . .  most
people are going to pass on that.
 
-- joe rao



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