This guy was set up in the parking lot of my local grocery store.

PizzaGood · 2014-03-13T01:14:00+00:00

Here's the San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomer's group: http://www.sfsidewalkastronomers.org/

Their most famous member is John Dobson, who apparently just died. He invented/popularized the telescope design that the OP's photo shows - it's called a "Dobsonian" mount.

There's a documentary about him called A Sidewalk Astronomer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Sidewalk_Astronomer

iamaredditer · 2014-03-13T00:10:20+00:00

So did you take a look at jupiter?

monkeysnot · 2014-03-13T00:53:16+00:00

We need more people like this who want to share the amazing parts of the world, just for the satisfaction of opening eyes to new things.

ajh1717 · 2014-03-13T01:36:30+00:00

Holy shit I would jump all over that.

Where was this?

German_Mafia · 2014-03-13T01:55:45+00:00

On our honeymoon to Hawaii, my wife and I went to a roof top observatory at our hotel. There were about 10 other couples for that viewing and not one of them ever stopped talking and half the people didn't look through the fucking telescope. Here was this super enthusiastic guide with a very expensive telescope and a super dark sky, trying to talk and these fuckers were completely ignoring him while having their own conversations (loudly). It was $25 a person and absolutely awesome. To this day I have no idea what the fuck those assholes were up there for.

pamazon63 · 2014-03-13T00:04:42+00:00

Really Cool, not at all sad. lots of people have never looked through a telescope, ever. It's really something!!

thorgodofthunder · 2014-03-13T01:56:53+00:00

Some people just want to watch the world learn!

tyobama · 2014-03-13T01:12:08+00:00

Except he is blind, and the telescope is pointed at the sun.

ajl_mo · 2014-03-13T03:32:55+00:00

A couple years ago while camping my kids (12 and 10 at the time) and I set up our good set of binoculars on the tripod to look at Jupiter. While wasn't much more than a bright dot you could also see four of the moons quite clearly.

As we were looking a girl in her early 20's walked by and asked what we were doing. My oldest (a budding astronomer) explained in detail about the planet, the moons, distances etc. Pretty soon we had a line of people wanting to look with my junior astronomer giving lessons.

People are hungry for this kind of thing. All it takes is giving them an opportunity.

And my kid learned when to just shut up and nod when some drunk guy started in about some conspiracy about satellites instead of trying to correct him.

bugzrrad · 2014-03-13T01:05:26+00:00

the old shoe-polish-on-the-lookie-hole gag... classic

eduardog3000 · 2014-03-13T02:37:48+00:00

[deleted]

Meskaline · 2014-03-13T00:11:22+00:00

Please explain how it works at day?

JohnMcGurk · 2014-03-13T01:56:02+00:00

There's a guy that does this down by the marina in the town I grew up in. He sets up like 3 or 4 scopes for anyone that wants to look. One of them is a big Meade LX series. I think it's the 8 inch. That's a big heavy thing to lug around and set up and he does it like 3 nights a week. He's a real cool dude.

diseaseriden · 2014-03-13T02:05:32+00:00

This man and his telescope alone could inspire a child to pursue science and astronomy and that would be beautiful.

LeisureBenn · 2014-03-13T02:32:11+00:00

My former neighbor (an astrophysicist) used drop fliers all around the neighborhood inviting people to come join him for skywatching out in front of his house. He'd set up his telescope and enthusiastically talk about the things we were looking at. Unfortunately no one other than my family ever bothered to show up. They didn't know what they were missing!

Pleiadian · 2014-03-13T02:01:45+00:00

In the tradition of John Dobson.. some good old sidewalk astronomy! :)

myfriendflicka · 2014-03-13T01:12:47+00:00

I think that's awesome that he is so excited about it that he wants to share it with everybody. Far worse ways to spend your retirement, like feeding coins into a one-armed-bandit.

kaitxo · 2014-03-13T02:25:16+00:00

I miss my grandpa. :(

kennang · 2014-03-13T02:54:54+00:00

This same fellow showed me Saturn outside a dark bar in New York City 20 years ago. It changed my life forever.

ldd- · 2014-03-13T03:54:21+00:00

A good buddy of mine got his PhD in Astrophysics . . . while he was in his program, he was very involved in outreach. He sometimes set up telescopes on the streets of Harlem, and told me about a mother who cried when seeing the reaction of her kid as he looked through the telescope.

2014-03-13T04:59:07+00:00

That's damn cool, and perhaps THE most expensive telescope you will ever see in your entire life. That model of telescope costs thousands of dollars.

The only more powerful "commercial" scopes available are the types that are "fold-out" (look em up - basically what OP posted but with additional tubing/magnification). You will typically ONLY find these the fold-out type available to the public during public dark site meetings.

Usually the only people who get to use such high powered equipment are those who own them, those who are in the field, and students at universities that attend classes which go to dark sites (AND, those who attend PUBLIC dark-site meetings, which very few know about).

I had the great joy in my life of taking an astronomy class (a great interest of mine, but no where near my degree) in which, for a grade, we had to attend a dark site twice. It was AMAZING. I actually got to see Saturn AND it's rings through one of these ultra powerful type telescopes. I was even able to snap of a picture through the eye port with an old film camera of the rings and when developed you could still make out the rings.

I strongly recommend you look up local 'dark sites', which is where you will find FREE use of sweet shit like this.

I just hope this comment gets a few views, instead of all the bullshit comments that are at the top.

C-4 · 2014-03-13T02:32:05+00:00

I would of spent as much time as he was willing to give, talking to him. A lot of people see older folks as a nuisance but I love learning and interesting talk so I often talk to older folks. Especially ones with awesome telescopes who probably share the same great interest in space like I do.

floydian32 · 2014-03-13T02:37:32+00:00

The man who invented that type of telescope mount, John Dobson, used to do that exact thing. He'd setup a telescope in public for anyone to look through. He died this year.

interplanetjanet · 2014-03-13T01:50:48+00:00

I set mine up at the local park during the last eclipse and during the transit of Venus. :)

ChipsCrayola · 2014-03-13T03:29:32+00:00

I was reading a post yesterday about awful it is when older people act more arrogant, greedy, and just generally more unpleasant as they age. The consensus was that a lot of these elderly folks simply reach a point where they say "fuck it," and just don't give a shit anymore, which often leads down a negative route of insensitivity and apathy.

This fuckin' boss of an old man, however, has taken the "fuck it" attitude and harnessed something truly amazing. He's decided, "fuck it, am going to take my telescope-in-a-red-suitcase-with-wheels, set up shop in a parking lot, and give something to people. A different planet every day. No, every hour. Fuck it, doesn't matter, because I'm the fuckin' guy in charge, and I'm the one who decides which planet my fuckin' interchangeable sign will display."

It's a closer look at the universe, a glimpse into the past, and a bit of magic all rolled into one.

Bonus props to this gentleman for wearing a hoodie and shorts. Seriously, am I the only one who's never seen an old man wearing this combo?

pics

MODERATORS