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!

Well, we celebrated the change of seasons in Colorado with a snowstorm up at our place.  Instead going out to see the Summer Triangle give way to the Great Square of Pegasus as the first night of autumn wore on, we watched snow come down and blanket the scene. It was kind of an early start to winter, and definitely no way to start autumn!

But, it got me to thinking about how people no longer rely on the stars to tell them seasons.  At least, not in places where the stars are kind of an afterthought due to light pollution and urban sprawl. Out in the countryside and in places where people are still more in tune with the sky, they’re closer to the stars in a very visceral sense.

The time was when all people would rely on the change of stars throughout the seasons to tell them that those seasons were changing. The sky was our calendar. It still is, for those who take time to learn what stars are up throughout the year.  When you do that, you become just a wee bit closer to the cosmos — you feel more a part of it than you would if the stars were just a thing you saw occasionally if you happened to be away from city lights.

Are kids taught the stars any more?  I know that kids still get to go to the planetarium — and no matter what kind of projection system a planetarium uses — there’s always a chance to learn what stars are up in the sky at any given time. And, that’s what a planetarium can give you — along with other good presentations both live and recorded. But, what happens after kids leave the planetarium?  Do their teachers follow up?  Or, are they so wound up in teaching to tests that the stars get left behind?

I read the other day that the state of Texas removed mentions of astronaut Neil Armstrng (first man to step onto the Moon — for all humanity, by the way) from some of its textbooks. Other prominent scientists (funny how some were astronomers) were removed, too.  What do kids learn these days if they aren’t learning something astronomy and science? Astronomy is a gateway science — you learn about chemistry and physics and so many other sciences through the study of astronomy. Yet, our kids aren’t getting the stars as much as they used to even when I was growing up. Which means their science education is being slighted at a time when the United States (at least) needs to be focusing on educating our kids more thoroughly, not less.  And now, they’re not even being taught about those people who help us learn about the universe in which we are born, live, and die.

Somber thoughts for the first week of northern hemisphere autumn… and food for thought for those of us who love the stars and want to pass that love along to others.  What are you doing to bring the stars to life for the next generation?  Hmmmm????