Great local resource: Discovery Place

Discovery Place was an uptown Charlotte pioneer when it opened in the early 1980s, and it has continued to be an asset to this community. Recently, it extended its run of the popular Body Worlds exhibit through early January. And, this week, there's a unique opportunity to hear from a famous astronomer, John Dobson, and to see the stars during a free "star party" on the roof of the parking deck this Saturday night.

I interviewed Dobson last week, and he was a hoot - many of his comments were spicy and unprintable, but he clearly has a passion for bringing the stars closer to people and increasing our awareness of the universe around us. I promised readers of today's paper an extended version of my interview, so here goes the printable parts (please don't forget the newcomer-related discussions in previous blog entries, which have led to some lively discussion, so scroll down if you're not interested in astronomy!)

Q. How did you get so fascinated with looking at the heavens?
When I looked through a 12-incher at the third-quarter moon, I was shocked. I had no idea the moon looked as though I was about to come in for a landing. I thought, ‘My God, everybody has got to see this."
That’s what the sidewalk astronomers do, we try to make it possible for the people who live in this world to see where the hell they live.

Q. To see their place in the universe?
Yes. Most people don’t notice that they’re in the universe. They think they’re in Carolina or wherever. That’s as far as it goes. They think the sun and the moon are about 200 miles up there. And it’s really not like that at all.

Q. Are you still teaching classes?
Yes, I still teach cosmology classes and telescope making classes.
My mission is to bring people to the universe. I was not particularly interested in pushing these types of telescopes, except that they’re easier to use, and we could manage them cheaply, you see, so that’s why we do it that way. I didn’t mean to start a revolution. That was not my intention at all.

Q. But you did, didn’t you.
Well yes. That’s what they blame me for.
I’ve become a cult hero, you see, because of that. I’ll tell you why. In the 60s, when you adults were using their telescopes, they were little tiny telescopes, maybe 4 inches across the glass, and they weren’t anything to look through anyway. They were set up for taking pictures. They were not really any good for seeing galaxies and things. You need a much bigger glass for seeing those things. So while they were running those things, we were running a 24-incher that sleeps three in the tube.

Q. Has interest remained strong today in amateur astronomy?
There was almost no interest in amateur astronomy when sidewalk astronomers started in the 60s. There was no such thing as a star party. Their telescopes were too small. What we do now with star parties with a whole lot of people there and a whole lot of telescopes, that was not going on in the 60s. They blame that all on me.

Q. Has light pollution in cities affected what you do?
Those dim fuzzies, we call them, galaxies and things, you can’t see them, they’re too far away you see, if you have a lot of lights around. We do that in our national parks with our 24-incher. When we’re in the national parks, we usually don’t have a lot of light pollution.
That’s one problem. But letting people see the planets and the moon in the cities. They’re lit by the sun for crying out loud, they’re not intimidated by the stupid lights from a city.

But one time in Los Angeles, the lights were so bright we could hardly find Jupiter with our bare eyes. That wasn’t a good night.
We give them a slideshow first. Show them pictures, so they have some idea what the hell’s going on out there you see. Then I get up on the ladder and explain what’s seeing. And then I tell them when you’re finished looking, you can get right back in line, and then when you get up to me again, you can tell me ‘I’ve already seen those dumb stars,’ and I’ll get you something else.

One time at the Grand Canyon, after we’d closed down at midnight, the Australian astronomers stayed up the whole rest of the night sketching galaxies with the 24-incher, galaxies that they can’t see in Australia, they don’t come over the horizon in Australia. And they spent the whole rest of the night sketching those galaxies.

Q. Why is it important to look through telescopes? What would you say to someone who never has?
I just tell them to come and look. Most people just walk by, they’re not about to look. Most people think they already know all they need to know. I know perfectly well that they don’t. And so many of them are shocked when they look through, at Jupiter or Saturn or any of these things. They’re shocked. They had no idea you could see anything like that. No idea the moon looks as though you could walk on it. What I often say nowadays is that if we can walk on the moon, we can understand this universe. And we have walked on the moon. So the universe is an understandable affair. So let’s just attack it.

You can make a telescope in about a week and you can see these things yourself. But understanding what we’re seeing, we’ve been working at it for several thousand years, and we haven’t got it finished.

Q. Anything to add?
Keep your eyes open.