I take my kids to the town center with our telescope and they work for tips to show people Jupiter and Saturn during the season.
Last time we did it we were looking at Jupiter, and these are some of the things that happened:
1 - a woman came back after 15 minutes and explained that she was so touched that we were out sharing the view, because she works with really horrible people (her words) which gives her a dim view of humanity. She said she was nearly home when she decided to turn around and come back.
2 - a cop had been looking at Juno pictures and was happy to see some of the detail in person.
3 - a couple had been talking earlier in the week about Jupiter being visible and wishing they had a telescope to see it, and said we made their night by showing them.
4 - a family bought ice cream for us.
5 - lots of people asked if we were astrologers.
6 - every time a group of people came, the first one looked in and after a few seconds, said "Oh no way!" or something similar. Then the rest were suddenly more interested.
7 - some people were skeptical that they were actually looking at Jupiter because it can look like a sticker inside the telescope or something. That skepticism was alleviated when they watched the planet drift across the field of view due to the Earth's rotation.
It's a ton of fun. For the people that are wondering, $200 is the minimum cost to get into hobbyist telescope astronomy. Visit /r/telescopes for more info and to get pointed in the right direction, as there are a lot of junk telescopes out there.
Zephh26 on August 25th, 2019 at 12:58 UTC »
How does one progress these photos?, constant overlapping or?
Senno_Ecto_Gammat on August 25th, 2019 at 13:26 UTC »
I take my kids to the town center with our telescope and they work for tips to show people Jupiter and Saturn during the season.
Last time we did it we were looking at Jupiter, and these are some of the things that happened:
1 - a woman came back after 15 minutes and explained that she was so touched that we were out sharing the view, because she works with really horrible people (her words) which gives her a dim view of humanity. She said she was nearly home when she decided to turn around and come back.
2 - a cop had been looking at Juno pictures and was happy to see some of the detail in person.
3 - a couple had been talking earlier in the week about Jupiter being visible and wishing they had a telescope to see it, and said we made their night by showing them.
4 - a family bought ice cream for us.
5 - lots of people asked if we were astrologers.
6 - every time a group of people came, the first one looked in and after a few seconds, said "Oh no way!" or something similar. Then the rest were suddenly more interested.
7 - some people were skeptical that they were actually looking at Jupiter because it can look like a sticker inside the telescope or something. That skepticism was alleviated when they watched the planet drift across the field of view due to the Earth's rotation.
It's a ton of fun. For the people that are wondering, $200 is the minimum cost to get into hobbyist telescope astronomy. Visit /r/telescopes for more info and to get pointed in the right direction, as there are a lot of junk telescopes out there.
Proxy_PlayerHD on August 25th, 2019 at 13:41 UTC »
man it's really impressive how good pictures can be taken of such far away objects through a thick atmosphere
it would be awesome if there was a hobbyist way to have a telescope in orbit