Asking Questions is Good!

The past 2.5 weeks I’ve been on hiatus from posting much because I’ve astronomy lecturing onboard a cruise ship. As part of my IYA outreach and at the invitation of Princess Cruises and by arrangement through the American Astronomical Society (of which I’m a long-time member), I went aboard the Coral Princess and presented my “Cruising the Cosmos” astronomy lecture series. I’ve done cruise lecturing before, and it’s a great deal of fun. People are in a relaxed mode and they are in the mood for some exploration of the starry skies. This trip was just as wonderful as the first time I did it and I enjoyed myself quite a bit.

One of the most entertaining parts of the experience for me is answering people’s questions about astronomy and space science. Everybody has an interesting question and once they get the idea that I’m not going to laugh at what they might consider a dumb question, we can have some great conversations.

So, what do people ask?  Inevitably, they ask about 2012.  So, I tailored a talk specifically about that topic. I’ll probably write something here about it one of these days.  They also ask about current events, which tells me that they (or at least cruise passengers) stay up to date about astronomy and space news. In at least one case (the Saturn ring discovery) they had the news before I did because it broke early in the morning and I hadn’t yet downloaded my daily email.

People seem to be intensely interested in how we know what we know in astronomy.  One question that kept coming up was how the Sun holds itself together.  Another was about how Earth and Moon formed. Another was on how satellites stay in orbit around their parent bodies. Several questions about cosmic distances spurred good conversations about how far we can “see” in the universe. And, there seemed to be lots of interest in the chemical percursors of life that have been reported in interstellar clouds.

I have to say that in two and half weeks of lectures and deck conversations and mealtime talks and hallway chats, I never heard a dumb question. Not one.  So, whether you’re on a cruise or not, the next time you run into an astronomer, don’t be afraid to ask that question about astronomy that you’ve always wanted to pose. You never know where the conversation you start will take you!