Sidewalk Astronomy at The Mall

The mall I work at participated in Earth Hour by turning off all non-essential lighting between 8:30 pm and 9:30 pm Saturday March 28th. I was approached by our local Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Centre, which btw I am a proud member of, to see if they could set up some scopes at the mall during Earth Hour.


I thought to myself, what a great idea, celebrate 2 things at once, Earth Hour and the International Year of Astronomy 2009.

It is the goal of the IYA 2009 to show 10 million people their first look through an astronomical telescope, they figure if 100,000 amateur observers each show 100 people their first look at the heavens through an astronomical telescope, they will make their goal. What better way to reach my 100 then a trip to the mall with my scope.


Well the response was more then we could have hoped for, from the time we set our scopes up at 8:20 pm to the time we shut down at 9:40 pm, it was non stop action. We had 3 scopes set up, 2 further down from me showing the beautiful crescent moon, and me at the main entrance showing Saturn. The thrill of seeing people's reaction at their first view of Saturn through a telescope never gets old. Words like "unbelievable", "cool", "unreal" were spoken by everyone.

A dad was lifting his son up to the eyepiece to look at Saturn, when the kid saw it he shouted and kicked his dad in the leg, well not exactly, but close to, if you get my meaning, the father almost dropped the kid, good thing he didn't, man that had lawsuit written all over it.


This whole experience got me thinking, watching the line build, people, after viewing Saturn yelling to the people at the end of the line,"It's worth the wait", over hearing people talking to other people in person and on their cells about the experience they just had and to come and see for themselves, it made me think , there is a real interest in the night sky, maybe one of these kids will go on to be an astronomer or science guy, not because of what I personally did, but the fact that a scope was there at the right time.

I know the effect the first look through a telescope had on me, except for one person that night, it was every one's first time. My hat goes off to our local RASC , taking time out of their busy schedules to do this on a regular basis.





The security team had one of our security cameras pointed at the main entrance way, never can be too secure, just in case someone was to knock me out and steal my 82 lb scope and tripod and run through the dark parking lot and try to squeeze it into their car, hey better safe then sorry.

Anyways I copied a little bit of that time to give you an idea what it looked like, mind you it is kind of dark being no lights and all.

Family Talents and Earth Hour 2009

I thought I'd do something special this post and showcase some of the many talents of my family. My upcoming trip to China has not only made me think of my own mortality, with my obsession with plane crashes and dying but also the mortality of the ones I hold dear. Sometimes I think we all take for granted the ones closest to us, this is just a way of paying tribute to and showing how much I appreciate them and what they have accomplished.

The image above is an Icon my wife is working on. It is called "The Holy Trinity" based on the Icon written by Andrei Rublev in the early 1400's. Right now it is in the "chaos stage" with some of the garments having the first highlight applied. When this icon is completed Cathy will have spent several hundred hours of work on it.


My oldest daughter Amanda, photographed what I like to call "Mediterranean Moon". This image was taken in Barcelona a few years ago. Amanda is a talented photographer who still loves using actual film, although she now owns and uses a Nikon D200, the above image was taken with a Nikon FA. The composition is great, I love how the Moonlight reflects off the Mediterranean Sea, plus it has palm tress in it, I love palm trees.


Last but not least is a work done by my youngest daughter Lindsay, the one that is getting married June 20th of this year. It is a Wolf done using the technique of Scratchboard. Using sharp tools you carve into a layer of white china coated with black India ink, very cool.



This coming Saturday March 28 at 8:30-9:30 pm local time is this year's "Earth Hour". On March 28 you can vote Earth by switching off your lights for one hour, or you can vote for global warming by not, your choice, let your voice be heard, vote Earth.

One billion votes is the goal this year, the vote will be presented at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen December of this year. The meeting will determine official government policies to take action against global warming, this agreement will replace the Kyoto Accord, the most significant international agreement to control green house emissions as the Kyoto Accord expires in 2012.

I will be voting Earth as well as the mall I work at. We are turning off, for that hour all non-essential lighting, actually our local Astronomy club, weather permitting will be setting up some scopes outside one of the mall entrances, kind of grouping Earth Hour and The International Year of Astronomy together for the hour, I will be taking pics and posting on a later post.

I'll leave you now with an animated "Mediterranean Moon". I like this animation so much I am going to place it on my sidebar, actually I will be posting another from one of my readers, so if you have anything you would like to animate and post on my sidebar, send it in to me. I will be rotating the spot for the readers regularly, so send one in.