Outreach at a Funeral?

Let's see your reports!
Post Reply
User avatar
jrkirkham United States of America
Orion Spur Ambassador
Articles: 0
Offline
Posts: 929
Joined: Fri Jun 07, 2019 12:37 am
4
Location: Illinois United States
Status:
Offline

TSS Awards Badges

TSS Photo of the Day

Outreach at a Funeral?

#1

Post by jrkirkham »


I attended a funeral yesterday and the Funeral Home Director asked if I minded if he set a lady next to me. After taking her seat she leaned over and said that she had never met me, but she knew who I was. It turned out that she had been hearing mutual friends talk about being invited to observing nights with my telescopes. She wondered if she could come out sometime. She wanted to look through a telescope. She had always wanted to see Saturn's rings, but had never seen them.

I told her it was the wrong time of year for Saturn, unless she wanted to get up before dawn. She didn't care what we looked at. She had been thinking about making a trip somewhere to visit an observatory. We scheduled a viewing night on June 1 or 2. Venus should be half illuminated, Mars will be in the beehive cluster, and we will have a full moon. Full moons are not prime time for observing, but if you slow the slewing rate and pump up the power you can let a first time viewer slowly scan what they want to see. Guests also won't run into as many things in the dark.

So, I guess I'm going to host another open viewing night before long. :confusion-shrug:
Rob
Telescopes: 50mm refractor, ED80 triplet, 90mm makcass, 10" dob, 8"SCT, 11"SCT
Mounts: Celestron CGX, Orion Sirius + several camera tripods
Cameras: Canon 6D, Canon 80D, ZWO-ASI120MC
Binoculars: 10x50, 12x60, 15x70, 25-125x80
Observatory: SkyShed POD XL3 + 8x12 warm room
AL Projects Completed: Lunar #645, Outreach #0280, Universe Sampler #93-T, Binocular Messier #871, Messier #2521, Messier Honorary #2521, Constellation Hunter Northern Skies #112, Planetary Transit Venus #1, Galileo #26, Outreach Stellar 0280, Meteor Regular #157, Solar System Telescopic #209-I, Observer Award #1
AL Projects Currently in Process: Double Stars, Comet, Lunar Evolution
User avatar
helicon United States of America
Co-Administrator
Co-Administrator
Articles: 584
Online
Posts: 12275
Joined: Mon May 06, 2019 1:35 pm
4
Location: Washington
Status:
Online

TSS Awards Badges

Re: Outreach at a Funeral?

#2

Post by helicon »


Well that probably was unexpected but a nice referral. Hope you have fun.
-Michael
Refractors: ES AR152 f/6.5 Achromat on Twilight II, Celestron 102mm XLT f/9.8 on Celestron Heavy Duty Alt Az mount, KOWA 90mm spotting scope
Binoculars: Celestron SkyMaster 15x70, Bushnell 10x50
Eyepieces: Various, GSO Superview, 9mm Plossl, Celestron 25mm Plossl
Camera: ZWO ASI 120
Naked Eye: Two Eyeballs
Latitude: 48.7229° N
User avatar
Butterfly Maiden Great Britain
Local Group Ambassador
Articles: 0
Offline
Posts: 2662
Joined: Mon May 11, 2020 8:32 pm
3
Location: New Forest, Hampshire, UK
Status:
Offline

TSS Photo of the Day

Re: Outreach at a Funeral?

#3

Post by Butterfly Maiden »


As Michael said Rob, what a pleasant surprise to meet an astronomy referral in the most unlikely of places.

I hope all goes well for you and the lady in question.
Vanessa

Nikon D82 Fieldscope with 30x/45x/56x angled eyepiece.
Olympus DPS-1 10x50 binoculars.
Leica 8x32BN binoculars.
User avatar
kt4hx United States of America
Moderator
Moderator
Articles: 4
Online
Posts: 3489
Joined: Sun May 12, 2019 12:18 am
4
Location: Virginia, USA
Status:
Online

TSS Awards Badges

Re: Outreach at a Funeral?

#4

Post by kt4hx »


A curious and different approach for sure. You sure she wasn't hitting on you Rob? :icon-smile:
Alan

Scopes: Astro Sky 17.5 f/4.5 Dob || Apertura AD12 f/5 Dob || Zhumell Z10 f/4.9 Dob ||
ES AR127 f/6.5 || ES ED80 f/6 || Apertura 6" f/5 Newtonian
Mounts: ES Twilight-II and Twilight-I
EPs: AT 82° 28mm UWA || TV Ethos 100° 21mm and 13mm || Vixen LVW 65° 22mm ||
ES 82° 18mm || Pentax XW 70° 10mm, 7mm and 5mm || barlows
Filters (2 inch): DGM NPB || Orion Ultra Block, O-III and Sky Glow || Baader HaB
Primary Field Atlases: Uranometria All-Sky Edition and Interstellarum Deep Sky Atlas
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Astronomers, we look into the past to see our future." (me)
"Seeing is in some respect an art, which must be learnt." (William Herschel)
"What we know is a drop, what we don't know is an ocean." (Sir Isaac Newton)
"No good deed goes unpunished." (various)
Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don't you think?” (Scarecrow, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)
User avatar
Frankskywatcher United States of America
Orion Spur Ambassador
Articles: 0
Offline
Posts: 938
Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2022 8:30 pm
2
Location: Conway South Carolina USA
Status:
Offline

TSS Awards Badges

Re: Outreach at a Funeral?

#5

Post by Frankskywatcher »


I always love the reaction that you get when someone sees the moon or a planet for the first time !
It’s usually something like Holy 💩😁
Gee if I had known there was so much to see I would have started decades ago ! :Astronomer1:

Equipment :
Apertura AD10” Dobsonian

Polaris 4” Dobsonian

7x50 binoculars
User avatar
messier 111 Canada
Universal Ambassador
Articles: 0
Offline
Posts: 9472
Joined: Mon Nov 09, 2020 2:49 am
3
Location: Canada's capital region .
Status:
Offline

TSS Awards Badges

Re: Outreach at a Funeral?

#6

Post by messier 111 »


welcome to the twilight zone.
I LOVE REFRACTORS , :Astronomer1: :sprefac:

REFRACTOR , TS-Optics Doublet SD-APO 125 mm f/7.8 . Lunt 80mm MT Ha Doublet Refractor .

EYEPIECES, Delos , Delite and 26mm Nagler t5 , 2 zoom Svbony 7-21 , Orion Premium Linear BinoViewer .

FILTER , Nebustar 2 tele vue . Apm solar wedge . contrast booster 2 inches .

Mounts , berno mack 3 with telepod , cg-4 motorized , eq6 pro belt drive .

“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in.”
― Isaac Asimov

Jean-Yves :flags-canada:
User avatar
Unitron48 United States of America
Local Group Ambassador
Articles: 0
Offline
Posts: 2747
Joined: Sun May 12, 2019 12:48 am
4
Location: Culpeper, VA (USA)
Status:
Offline

TSS Awards Badges

Re: Outreach at a Funeral?

#7

Post by Unitron48 »


Surprising referral for sure! Looking forward to your observing report!

Dave
Unitron (60mm, 102mm), Brandon 94
Stellarvue SVX127D
http://www.unitronhistory.com

"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better." Albert Einstein
Post Reply

Create an account or sign in to join the discussion

You need to be a member in order to post a reply

Create an account

Not a member? register to join our community
Members can start their own topics & subscribe to topics
It’s free and only takes a minute

Register

Sign in

Return to “Astronomy Reports”