December 1998

Guests Say the Darndest Things

by Steve White

The Nightly Observing Program is actually very dynamic. A visitor on one night will probably not have the same experience as on another night. There are several reasons for this: first of all, as the seasons pass, different evening constellations are visible, and different objects can be seen in the telescope. Since this program is based on and inspired by the sky, what we see up there can affect explanations and discussions.

Another source of perpetual change in the program is the guests. We draw people from a tremendous variety of backgrounds and ways of thinking, so listening to the guests' comments and questions is always enlightening. I keep a journal of guest comments, and they have already inspired a previous article. Since then I have accumulated many more utterances, a number of which are amusing or at least odd. Let me share the silliest of these.

Guests are sometimes overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the universe. Often I have to use words like million, billion, or trillion, and it makes some people's heads swim. Others take it in stride. While showing a globular cluster in the telescope, I casually mentioned that it had several hundred thousand stars. The crowd sat in awed silence. The first guest stepped up, sat in the chair, put his eye to the eyepiece, and very quietly said, "One... two... three...."

Another popular object is a group of stars called M11. It has a nickname: the Wild Duck Cluster. No one seems to know why, since it bears no resemblance to any waterfowl, wild or otherwise. Guests are often perplexed by this mystery. One guest proposed a solution. "I don't know about a Wild Duck, but I bet some Wild Turkey was involved." I cannot confirm or deny this hypothesis, but comments like this make me wonder what the public thinks about astronomers. I hope I won't be reduced to assuring people that we're not a just bunch of alcoholics (in my experience, physicists are much heavier drinkers than astronomers, for what it's worth).

On the other hand, while I have the utmost respect for our guests, sometimes I wonder if they are all fine upstanding moral citizens. It is common knowledge among astronomers that red-colored light can provide illumination without disturbing one's night vision, so that a path or star chart can be seen without losing the ability to see very faint celestial objects. To take advantage of this, guests are given small red flashlights, and the dome lights are colored red. There is also a long row of red lights running the length of the parking lot, which guests notice for the first time on their way out to their cars at the end of the program. The idea, of course, is safety, so I was surprised when I first heard a guest exclaim, "Ooh, it's a red-light district!"

Many objects in space are very beautiful, but unheard of (M11, for example). Others are so striking that they develop a reputation even among the nonstargazing public. The Orion Nebula and the Andromeda Galaxy are very popular, and there is usually a buzz in the crowd when I mention that one of these will be our next target for the telescope. Nothing gets the guests as worked up, though, as a chance to see Saturn. Our sixth planet is legendary, and it should be. In fact, it has such an impact that I like to save it for last, since it makes such a wonderful "finale object."

Some folks get a bit impatient, though. Near the end of one program, as guests were finally looking at the ringed planet, I mentioned that because of Saturn's distance from the Earth, "we see it as it appeared an hour and fifteen minutes ago, because it takes that long for the light to reach us." One young girl spoke up. "Is that why we waited so long to look at it?" Hmm. I wasn't ready for that one. Eventually, I found my mental footing and explained that even though it takes time for light to travel from there to here, the light from objects in space is continually washing over us. If we had looked earlier, we would have seen an older view of Saturn, but indeed, Saturn would have been there! (Lightspeed delay is fun to think about, and not just with regards to seeing distant galaxies as they appeared millions of years ago. You, Gentle Reader, are not seeing these words as they are now; you are seeing them as they appeared about a billionth of a second ago. Light takes time.)

Okay, one more: On another evening, the crowd was clamoring for old Planet Number Six. I wanted to show one more object before Saturn (the Andromeda Galaxy, I think) so I said, "Let me make one stop before we look at Saturn..." and the immediate response was, "Toyota?" Sure. Then Mercury and Taurus and Nova... did you know that Subaru is Japanese for Pleiades, the Seven Sisters?

I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all the participants in the Nightly Observing Program, not only for keeping my life interesting and giving me lots to think about, but for making this program possible.

- Steve White
Observing Guide, Nightly Observing Program
Kitt Peak Visitor Center

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Updated: 12/30/98