GeorgeDuke
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/24/03
Posts: 850
Loc: PARADISE! (So.Florida)
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I guess the "how far can you see?" question is probably the most asked. On occasion I have told them that space is curved and if they look very closely they can see the back of their own head!
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George
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LX200GPS 203mm f10
StellarVue SV102ED Ser#0018
Celestron 130mm f15.4 Mak
Celestron 102mm f5 - GSO dual speed Crayford
LXD75 GOTO with Orion 16" pier extension
ASGT GOTO with Orion 16" pier extension
Desert Sky DSV1 dual head ALT-AZ mount
2" GSO 26mm,32mm Kellners
2" 30mm and 1.25" 11mm 80 deg UWA
2" GSO ED and Orion 2x 3 element barlows
Set of Celestron X-Cel eyepieces
I Love Chinese scopes! SERIOUSLY!
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stefanj
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 11/15/07
Posts: 1134
Loc: Western New York State
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These are all too funny- But it leaves me wondering what the public REAL thinks is out there- Anyway- my story- I took my daughter and a few other girls from Camp to see a metor shower last August. Well the metors were few and far between- but we were having a blast spotting satallites- The 2 girls suddenly became very concerned because it appeared that a satallite and an airliner were about to crash! My daughter and I still get a good chuckle over that one!
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Life is a circus- and I'm stuck in the FREAK TENT
Meade ETX 90RA w/ tripod
Meade AZ 70
Meade DS 2130 AT
Zhumell 10" Dob
Zhumell Plossel EP and Filter set
Simmons 10x50 Binoculars
GLPx5
LPI
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rocco13
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 07/29/06
Posts: 1344
Loc: Phoenix, Arizona
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I've also been asked the "how far can you see?", and also "how much power does it have?" So I say right around 8000x, and always get a "hmmm" accompanied with a knowing 'nod' or "that's about what I would have guessed".
One thing that happens no matter what the age of the viewer is after looking through the eyepiece, they ALWAYS step back and look to the sky in that same direction, as if they were going to see the object naked eye, too.
Re the astrology confusion...more than once, when my astronomy hobby is mentioned, I've been told that "I don't really believe in that stuff, but it's fun to read my horoscope anyway."
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Rocco
Obsession 15"
Super C8 (1984 vintage)
Celestron 102 f/5
and a cheap pair of binoculars
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DaveCPAC
member
Reged: 02/21/08
Posts: 36
Loc: Lincoln, NE
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Speaking of the moon, I set up my scope for the kids (about 12 of them) at one of our family reunions. Oddly enough it was the younger ones (4-7) who were the most intrigued with what I was showing them, which was the Jupiter and the Moon. One nephew (5 y/o) was looking at the moon and I asked if he could see it. He nodded and his cousin asked "what do you see Sam?"
"Holes" was his answer. Interesting perspective I thought 
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Dave Churilla
Prairie Astronomy Club
Lincoln, NE
http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org/
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werewolf6977
Lord High Smasher
Reged: 12/15/03
Posts: 7034
Loc: Hanover, Ohio
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Out of the mouths of babes.....
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Pete
6" Apogee/LXD55 - "The Beast"
Starhopper 6" Dob - "Shiva"
Spaceprobe 130 EQ - "Spacey"
Bushnell Fatboy
The Abomination
Sun Pak Pro 7500 Platinum Edition
10X25 Bushnell Camo Roofies
7X35 Tasco Classic Plastic (good views though)
7X42 Tasco Rare Bird
10X50 Nikon Actions (Type 7)
15X70 Skymasters - "DroolMeisters"
One ratty old IBM 600E LapTop
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Skip
professor emeritus
Reged: 01/23/08
Posts: 748
Loc: Austin, Texas, USA
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Speaking of "out of the mouths..."
I'm at almost all of the outreach events for our club and we get very few really "stupid" or wiseacre questions. Most people are really thrilled at what they are seeing. But once I had a 7 year old looking at M31 through my scope. I told him it was the farthest thing we could see with our naked eye and that the telescope was something like a time machine looking back in time over 2 million years. He jerked his head back from the scoppe, eyes really big, and shouted "Hey Mom, come over here and see this guy's time machine!" 
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Skip
Celestron NexStar 6SE (Small Caliber)
Orion SkyQuest XT10i Intelliscope (Howitzer)
2 25mm Plossls; 24mm & 13mm Hyperions; 10mm Plossl; 6mm BO/TMB; 2X Barlow
Telrad
7Ah PowerTank
Starbound Observing Chair
“It’s impossible to make things foolproof because fools are so ingenious.” (Unknown)
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David Culp
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/10/07
Posts: 993
Loc: Carrollton, TX
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One of my favorites goes something like this:
"Hey man, how much will that magnify?"
"Well, that really depends, right now were looking at (insert object) at about 45X"
"That scopes trash man, my friend has one he bought from Wal-Mart that can go up to 550X!"
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Atoka, Ok
Edited by David Culp (04/03/08 02:12 PM)
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Trebor777
sage
Reged: 01/04/08
Posts: 353
Loc: Bridgeport, CT - U.S.
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Quote:
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.....  
You can't see anything we left on the moon with a telescope. Anysize basically. Even the Hubble can't see anything we left.
You'd need a telescope, in space, over 100meters in size to actually see anything we left... Flags, rovers, etc, etc...
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"What's the speed of dark?"
Meade LXD75 SN10 AT w/ UHTC & Moonlite CR2
Orion 80mm ED APO
Atlas EQ-G mount
Celestron NextStar 130SLT
BO/TMB 40mm Paragon
WO 33mm SWA
Meade 26mm 2" QX
Hyperion 13 & 17mm
BO/TMB 20mm Stellar Series
BO/TMB 2.5, 3.2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9mm Planetary
Celestron Ultima 2x Barlow
Celestron Filters
Celestron UHC/LPR Filter
Baader Laser Colli
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llanitedave
Humble Megalomaniac
Reged: 09/26/05
Posts: 9559
Loc: Amargosa Valley, NV, USA
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I like the "horror-scope" response to the astrology-confused. Whenever someone asks me what my "sign" is, my answer is "No Parking".
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Homebuilt 10" dob, old Coulter mirror.
16" Royce conical mirror: Construction on S.O.E. (Sauron's Other Eye) has officially begun!
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Classic8
super member
Reged: 04/12/06
Posts: 191
Loc: Naperville, IL, USA
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Quote:
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.
I pronounce it Er-in-us now. Why? When I was in college I had a classical mythology class and the professor was talking about the god that the planet was named after. She pronounced it that way, and I figured, well, she would know how to pronounce it.
And it sounds a heck of a lot better than Yer-ayn-us. Or the other pronunciation Yer-in-us, which isn't much better.
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George
8" Celestron SCT
ETX 125PE
MaxScope 40
"Oral agreements aren't worth the paper they're written on"
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Firewood
member
Reged: 10/27/07
Posts: 20
Loc: Houston, TX
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Hi, folks!
I was out camping with some friends a few years ago and pulled out my binoculars to take advantage of the clear, dark skies. I showed the Andromeda galaxy to one friend when another walked up and asked what we were looking at. The first friend pulled the binoculars away from her face, look at him, and said in all seriousness: "The Androgynous galaxy."
- Jeff
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Jason D
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 10/21/06
Posts: 1433
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Quote:
Quote:
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.....
You can't see anything we left on the moon with a telescope. Anysize basically. Even the Hubble can't see anything we left.
You'd need a telescope, in space, over 100meters in size to actually see anything we left... Flags, rovers, etc, etc...
Instead of hitting golf balls, the Apollo astronauts should have taken their time to stack/arrange lunar rocks on the moon's surface to make a huge "X" sign visible to amateur astronomers 
Jason
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XT10 classic with premium optics
Tri-knob CR2 with compression rings
Round Table Platform
4.5" StarBlast
6" StarBlast6
TV EPs
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David Culp
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/10/07
Posts: 993
Loc: Carrollton, TX
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Quote:
I pronounce it Er-in-us now. Why? When I was in college I had a classical mythology class and the professor was talking about the god that the planet was named after. She pronounced it that way, and I figured, well, she would know how to pronounce it.
And it sounds a heck of a lot better than Yer-ayn-us. Or the other pronunciation Yer-in-us, which isn't much better.
I actually pronounce it "You-ron-us" to try and avoid the chuckles from kids in class.
I really hate that planet.
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Atoka, Ok
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Sky_Watcher2007
easily amused
Reged: 07/24/06
Posts: 168
Loc: Belleville, IL
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Quote:
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.
I just laughed so hard I almost fell out of my chair!
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Rhonda~
C9.25 ASGT SCT
Hardin Optical 6" Dob
Pentax 16 x 50 XCF Binoculars
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RussL
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 03/18/08
Posts: 1119
Loc: Cayce, SC
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Quote:
at least you're not a science teacher who has to put up questions such as:
I had a science teacher in high school (also the golf coach) who once pronounced Copernicus as "Copper Nickus." I corrected him after class. Not good. I was also on the golf team. Uh oh. 
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--Russell
"Akita mani yo." Observe everything as you walk. (--Lakota)
Celestron Celestar 8 Standard SCT, f10
Celestron 80mm Wide View ref., f5
Criterion RV-6 Dynascope, Newt., f8, (c. 1962)
Sears Discoverer 60mm ref., f7, (c. 1973)
Celestron Ultima DX 10x50, 6.5 TFOV
Tasco 7x35 wide
Several mediocre eyepieces
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David Culp
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/10/07
Posts: 993
Loc: Carrollton, TX
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Quote:
I just laughed so hard I almost fell out of my chair!
I see you live up to your tag line of "easily amused"
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Atoka, Ok
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Sky_Watcher2007
easily amused
Reged: 07/24/06
Posts: 168
Loc: Belleville, IL
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 You have no idea.... 
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Rhonda~
C9.25 ASGT SCT
Hardin Optical 6" Dob
Pentax 16 x 50 XCF Binoculars
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larrymax
super member
Reged: 02/02/08
Posts: 130
Loc: Orting, WA
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Had my first "question" last night.
I was setup in the front yard last night and my neighbor came out and said "Are you looking at the sky?" I stepped back from the Ep and stared at her for a second then I looked at the scope and then back at her and said "no". She got a puzzled look on her face and walked back in her house. I started laughing so hard I had to call it quits for the night.
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Trebor777
sage
Reged: 01/04/08
Posts: 353
Loc: Bridgeport, CT - U.S.
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Quote:
Had my first "question" last night.
I was setup in the front yard last night and my neighbor came out and said "Are you looking at the sky?" I stepped back from the Ep and stared at her for a second then I looked at the scope and then back at her and said "no". She got a puzzled look on her face and walked back in her house. I started laughing so hard I had to call it quits for the night.
You should have said you're looking for angels to shoot down. 
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"What's the speed of dark?"
Meade LXD75 SN10 AT w/ UHTC & Moonlite CR2
Orion 80mm ED APO
Atlas EQ-G mount
Celestron NextStar 130SLT
BO/TMB 40mm Paragon
WO 33mm SWA
Meade 26mm 2" QX
Hyperion 13 & 17mm
BO/TMB 20mm Stellar Series
BO/TMB 2.5, 3.2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9mm Planetary
Celestron Ultima 2x Barlow
Celestron Filters
Celestron UHC/LPR Filter
Baader Laser Colli
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larrymax
super member
Reged: 02/02/08
Posts: 130
Loc: Orting, WA
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Quote:
You should have said you're looking for angels to shoot down.
 
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