Sidewalk Astronomy with TAAS
Flying Star Cafe, January '03
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| Sidewalk Astronomy is bringing astronomy to people wherever
they are, which usually means in-town, bright lights and
all.
After the TAAS General Meeting on 1/18/03, several TAAS
members headed over to one of our favorite watering holes - The
Flying Star Cafe on Juan Tabo, and set-up scopes. It was
just a spontaneous idea, but certainly not the first time that
we have done it.
Photos by Eric Bucheit |
Barry Spletzer draws the crowd with Saturn
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Brock Parker (left), and Sammy Lockwood (rt) |
The classical story of Sidewalk Astronomy began in San
Francisco many years ago. Members of a club there started
setting-up scopes in downtown, and the idea took off. Read about
the San
Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers |
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| The idea was thought of and then announced at the TAAS meeting
earlier that night. About a dozen TAAS'ers, some with
scopes, some with literature, were joined by crowds of
pleasantly surprised folks who were there. Our group this
night included Brock, Barry, Dale, Sammy, Eric, Ralph, Karen,
and some newer folks who's names I haven't learned yet.
Hopefully, they'll keep coming back until I do. |
Planets show up great, even in bright parking lots. |
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Sam Lockwood IV (left) shows Jupiter.
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Less than a week earlier, Barry Spletzer, Sammy Lockwood, and
his son Sam were "sidewalking" at the same Flying Star
Cafe location. TAAS's Sidewalk Astronomy group, aka The
Coffee Shop Astronomers, has also been at Bound to be Read,
The Blue Dragon, Popejoy Hall, Irysh Mac's, and a list of other
places. We usually don't plan more than a few hours ahead
of what we do, so we are usually unexpected where ever we
go. Maybe that's why some people refer to us as Urban Gorilla
Astronomers. |
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