Posted by Jennifer on July 5, 2019
Sidewalk Astronomy was pioneered and popularised about 50 years ago on the streets of San Francisco by a person named John Dobson. John was a monk and loved astronomy on the cheap, making telescopes that still bear his name; the Dobsonian is a reflecting telescope that uses a wooden mount to makes large scopes so easy to transport and use. So the story goes, he would climb over the walls of the monastery in the evenings to set up his telescopes on the sidewalks of San Fran and encourage the public to "come and see the stars". Astronomy clubs, like RASC, decided to do similar projects. Eventually, the monastery kicked Dobson out for his astro-habits and he became a regular figure in amateur astronomy circles. He died in early 2014, at the age of 98.
The idea of Sidewalk Astronomy as a drop in program is to catch people when they are not expecting to get a look through a telescope, then explain to them what they are seeing. Join the RASC at the L.E.Shore Library July 9th, 30th and August 6th
1-3pm All ages welcome!
