InkDark
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 10/29/07
Posts: 1514
Loc: Montreal, Canada
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Quote:
Ohh, I thought of one many, many years ago when I started with a 60mm refractor back in college. I used to get together with another guy who was also very interested in astronomy, but we were both starting out. You know the story, wandering around Lyra looking for the ring nebula visually at about 10 power, not finding it for some reason...
Well, my friend has this 4" reflector that was kind of beat up. He yells, "I GOT IT!!!" and starts hopping around. I run over and sure enough, there is this white donut! Hmmmm..... I began moving the scope around, and... hmmm, all the other stars looked like donuts? I focused the scope, but couldn't get a pinpoint, just a larger or smaller donut, (probably the mirror cell had shifted and collimation was in the twilight zone). Anyway I said, "Jim, I don't think it's the ring nebula, everything looks like a donut?". He rushes over and takes a look... In all seriousness he says, "Maybe I've discovered a cluster of planetaries!"
Oh that's a good one...Oh my, these stories are great...keep 'em coming...
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Jimmy
"Rarely Have So Many Understood So Little About So Much" - Palle Yourgrau
"...since that time, I have not complained about the weather one single time. I’m glad there is weather." – Alan Bean, Apollo 12
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msholden
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 09/21/05
Posts: 1181
Loc: Connecticut
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A couple of years ago at the CPTV Family Science expo - a daytime indoor event. I had my scope aimed at a dead bug in the rafters of the hall.
A teacher asked "Why are you wasting our time with this when you could be showing us the Moon or a planet?"
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Life is too short to look through bad glass.
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AstroRealtor
professor emeritus
Reged: 03/26/08
Posts: 538
Loc: Terra Firma
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It never ceases to amaze me that in such a public setting; people don't think before they speak. It reminds me of the story of the guy who after acknowledging that we had the technology to go to the moon asked why we don't go to the sun? When it was explained to him how the temperature wouldn't allow it he asked "why don't we just go at night"? 
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Clear Skies, Jim
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Discovering: Messier objects, Deep sky treasures, NGCs, Double stars, & Nebulae of all kinds.
Televue 85 "Polaris" Mount
Custom Crafted Newtonian Dob 8" f7 w/Feathertouch
Celestron Cometron Reflector 114mm f8
Zeiss Diafun 8 X 30 Binos
Zeiss 10 X 56 Binos
 Aldrich Astronomical Society
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Protheus
Vaguely offended
Reged: 09/01/07
Posts: 4664
Loc: Illinois, US
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Quote:
"why don't we just go at night"?
Oh wow... why didn't I think of that? 
Chris
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"To tread the sharp edge of a sword;
to run on smooth-frozen ice,
one needs no footsteps to follow..."
"Well, people sometimes ask me 'how did you get involved in astronomy?' I said 'I got born, what's your problem?'" -- John Dobson
"In discussing the large-scale structure of the cosmos, astronomers sometimes say that space is curved, or that the universe is finite but unbounded. Whatever are they talking about?" -- Carl Sagan
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Sky_Watcher2007
easily amused
Reged: 07/24/06
Posts: 174
Loc: Belleville, IL
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Or the "moon conspirators" who always ask "why don't we point Hubble at the moon so we can see the flag or the rover". I always tell them that they are located on the opposite side of the moon where Hubble can't get to.....  
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Rhonda~
C9.25 ASGT SCT
Hardin Optical 6" Dob
Pentax 16 x 50 XCF Binoculars
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Nils_Lars
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 01/04/08
Posts: 997
Loc: Santa Cruz Mountains , CA
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Well At least you dont work with a bunch of auto techs like I do who think it is hillarious to say that im always looking at Uranus.
I chuckled the first time to play along but the joke is still funny to them a year later , I shouldnt expect too much of them but am I still in 5th grade?
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Erik
Orion ED 80
Orion Atlas GOTO mount
Williams Optics reducer
Various eyepieces and other gear
Baytronix 80mm guidescope
Orion Starshoot Autoguider
PHD guide
Canon 400D (unmodded)
Stilleto Focuser
Tamron 75-300mm&28-80mm lenses
NexImage webcam
http://home.comcast.net/~eriknlarsen/site/?/photos/
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Sky_Watcher2007
easily amused
Reged: 07/24/06
Posts: 174
Loc: Belleville, IL
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And if I get one more person who asks me if I can "read their sign"........... 
It's "Astronomy" people.... not "Astrology".... geez... 
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Rhonda~
C9.25 ASGT SCT
Hardin Optical 6" Dob
Pentax 16 x 50 XCF Binoculars
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Sky_Watcher2007
easily amused
Reged: 07/24/06
Posts: 174
Loc: Belleville, IL
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Quote:
Well At least you dont work with a bunch of auto techs like I do who think it is hillarious to say that im always looking at Uranus.
I chuckled the first time to play along but the joke is still funny to them a year later , I shouldnt expect too much of them but am I still in 5th grade?
You were looking at MY WHAT????  
I'm sorry....I couldn't resist.... 
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Rhonda~
C9.25 ASGT SCT
Hardin Optical 6" Dob
Pentax 16 x 50 XCF Binoculars
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saxmaneagle
super member
Reged: 08/21/07
Posts: 174
Loc: Saint Francis, MN
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chuckling at Rhonda...
....someone once told a friend "Scotts into Astrology" -- I just replied and said, "You both should come over and look through my horo-scope some night !"
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Meade 16" Lightbridge
TV Paracorr
Glatter BLUG
2" Infinity XL & TeleCAT XL
10x50 Meade binos
20x80 standard Oberwerk binos
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"Inside us all are such Wonders. Search yourself, find them...share them...and Dream, of a better tomorrow"
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Zebra24601
Postmaster
Reged: 10/09/05
Posts: 7459
Loc: San Gabriel Valley, CA 91770
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Quote:
Quote:
with viewing Saturn is, after the "Wow!" expression, then there is the inevitable "That's not real! You stuck a picture in there!" Saturn is always a site to behold, it does look like it 'can't be real'. 
that kind of happened to me.i had a friend look at saturn and he thought it was fake but surely it was real! 
We actually did put a sticker in front of our telescope at our outreach event on Saturday:
http://photo.whiteoaks.com/2008-3-29-lights-out/
This is what you resort to when your outreach event gets clouded out.
[Click on the photos to read the captions. The last ten or so are where the captions are talking about the stickers. The second to last picture is actually pretty cool.]
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Zebra24601
Meade 8" SCT w/UHTC * Celestron 100ED * Celestron C11 * Barska 15x70 binoculars
Meade LXD55 mount * Orion Sirius goto mount * Bushnell Voyager 4.5" Compact Reflector
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james royce
member
Reged: 03/28/08
Posts: 28
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the flag question is high on the list! one genteman seeing my 5" refractor commented "i bet you can see all the way to texas with that telescope" i live in s.w. ohio
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vinnie
Latinist
Reged: 01/05/08
Posts: 1446
Loc: Queensland, Australia
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Quote:
This may be slightly off topic but still funny. I shop at Sam's Club and Wal-Mart on a regular basis and they frequently have telescopes for sale. Often they are Reflectors and they ALWAYS set the display up with the OTA backwards in the mount and the eyepiece end pointing to the floor! I have spoken to them many times about it but I am sure they think I am crazy. Sometimes I re-assemble the display myself but the next time I am there it has been changed back to their concept of how it should be!
Yeah George, been there done that (apologies, this is a little off topic, but not a great deal)
I was in a major city last year and there was a 114mm Newt in pride of place in the centre of a Camera Store. Complete with finder on back to front, open end down, focuser pointing to the floor and mirror cell pointing up at the ceiling. Well I couldn't help myself, and started turning the bugger around when the salesman came up and told me that this was the latest thing in Astronomy, the "back to front telescope". He truly believed that you looked in through the open end, and somehow saw something other than a carnival mirror view of your own face. So I commented on how sloppy the EQ mount was, and he got a bit stroppy and said that it was OK to start, but too many people had come in and fooled around trying to turn it the wrong way round, and so had worn it out.
Vin
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Silicon Owl
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 11/25/05
Posts: 944
Loc: Waimea, Hawaii
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I have a personal bet that I can not show Saturn to a crowd and not have somebody, usually a kid, ask if I have a photo, slide, sticker, or similar in the 'scope. I will invariably have it suggested, usually as a joke, that the image is fake. I have NEVER lost this bet.
Considering I have shown Saturn to thousands of people at dozens and dozens of events this never fails to amaze me. Last week was no exception as we looked at an absolutely gorgeous Saturn with nearly perfect seeing. The summit reported 0.4arcsec seeing, I suspect we had 1arcsec or better down a few thousand feet at the Mauna Kea VIS. I will be trying to lose this one every other week for the next couple months until we lose Saturn to the sunset.
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Andrew Cooper
Personal Website and CN Gallery
Handmade 18" Dob / NS11GPS / 6" RFT / 90mm APO / TV-76 ...and a twin 10m
"I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night." --Sarah Williams
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John Carruthers
Skiprat
Reged: 02/02/07
Posts: 1708
Loc: Kent, UK
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One public night I was showing Mars to 2 young ladies, explaining about the dust storms and how they partially obscure the surface. I can't have explained it very well, one said she'd found the red dust on her car
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Jc
ATM 10" F6.1, 1/25th wave spec (max wavefront error +/- 1/12.6 in zone 4 of 6, sodium light )
6" F7 spec
127mm F9.4 Refractor
10 x 50 bin
ETX80 (finder)
Canon 20D
and a curious mind
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David Culp
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 04/10/07
Posts: 1013
Loc: Carrollton, TX
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Quote:
Well At least you dont work with a bunch of auto techs like I do who think it is hillarious to say that im always looking at Uranus.
Hey, thats nothing, at least you're not a science teacher who has to put up questions such as:
"Hey Mr. Culp, how big is Uranus?"
"Hey Mr. Culp, I heard Uranus is blue, is that true?"
"Hey Mr. Culp, is Uranus full of gas?"
I hate that planet.
Edited by David Culp (04/03/08 06:49 AM)
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InkDark
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 10/29/07
Posts: 1514
Loc: Montreal, Canada
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Once, at a public thing, the animator was explaining how Jupiter is large relaive to Earth. A lady then asked:"Is Jupiter much bigger than the Sun?".
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Jimmy
"Rarely Have So Many Understood So Little About So Much" - Palle Yourgrau
"...since that time, I have not complained about the weather one single time. I’m glad there is weather." – Alan Bean, Apollo 12
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jayscheuerle
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 01/16/06
Posts: 2994
Loc: S. Philadelphia, PA
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"Can you see aliens on the Moon with that?"
Seriously folks.
Welcome to South Philly... - j
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12" Green Goblin (trusser w/Protstar secondary and OWL refigured primary)• 6" f/5 Eero2 ball-scope • 6" f/5 Frankenscope • Garrett Optical 10x50 binos • Edmund 8" yoke-mounted red-tube reflector • Edmund 6" GEQ red-tube reflector (on loan to Dad)
Gone, but with lessons learned:
Skyquest XT8 • NexSTar 8i • Eeroscope 6" f/5 ball(sacrifice was not in vain) • Vixen ED80sf • Edmund red-tube 4.25" f/10 • Edmund Astroscan
Facts are stubborn things.
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Snaproll
Post Laureate
Reged: 02/20/04
Posts: 3500
Loc: Wisconsin
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Oh the Uranus thing... not really a "story" but a photo somebody sent me that was kind of amusing. In Hong Kong there is apparently the 'Titan' tugboat fleet. They apparently name their boats after the planets. So this friend sends me a photo of the nameplate on one of the boats... I assume the others were names like, "Titan Mercury", "Titan Venus"... I guess they had at least seven tugboats from the photo...
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-Jim-
Happiness is a clear sky and a Denk II
old AP images and some new C14 Hyperstar images
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Joe Lalumia
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 01/24/07
Posts: 2573
Loc: Rockwall, Texas, USA
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You guys have hit most of them already--- my most frequent funny questions are about the same---
1. How far can you see with that?
2. How did you get that picture inside the telescope(Saturn) while they look into the front of the scope!
3. See that "star" it's really the planet Jupiter---- "NO WAY!" is the reply.
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LX90 8" LNT, SV Nighthawk & TelePOD, SV 80/9D & M4 mount, ETX 90, Orion XT10i, 20x80 binoculars, SV-BV3s.
"The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax." - Albert Einstein
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DoctorNoodle
professor emeritus
Reged: 07/14/07
Posts: 666
Loc: Lawn Guyland, NY
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You guys all get the good questions. All I get is, "I'm a Sassitafrian. What's my horrorscope?" 
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“Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!” - Homer Simpson
Alanoodle's Model Portfolio
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