Remember when you were a kid and you looked through a telescope for the first time? Well, maybe it doesn't compare to getting your first Twitter Tweet, but I bet you remember it.
Once upon a time, people could go outside at night and (gasp!) it was dark! They could see the moon, stars, planets and lots of other things that fed imaginations for generations.
400 years ago, Galileo built one of the first telescopes, and turned it to the heavens. This weekend, I participated in a program that brought a little bit of that sense of discovery to 2000 people in Nicaragua, where I live.
2009 is the International Year of Astronomy. It is endorsed by the United Nations and the International Council for Science.
This past weekend was 100 Hours of Astronomy. Here in Nicaragua, our astronomy group, ANASA, was able to have telescopes available to the public in three cities: Managua, Granada, and Jinotepe.
We have a projector that was used to show a short video about the International Year of Astronomy, and also to project a planetarium program, Stellarium, that is a free, open source program.
When that part of the program was over and it was announced that the telescpopes were available, there was nearly a stampede. I don't know how many hundreds got to see the moon through the scope I had, but nearly every one them had a smile on their face.
Here is a video, courtesy of Julio Vannini, of ANASA:
Looking at the heavens does not require a telescope, of course, but it does help to have a little guidance. To that end, ANASA (with the patronage of UNESCO, the Vicepresident of Nicaragua and CONICYT) printed about 2500 calendars with star charts for each month, phases of the moon, and other basic information that can get people started. You can see some of the people in the video clutching their calendars.
Oh, if you do watch the video, keep in mind that most of the people getting their first glimpse through a telescope live on about $600 a year. That's about what one of those scopes cost.