I go back and forth on how much of the night sky I should learn. The conventional (default even) idea seems to be that the more you know, the more you enjoy! Constellation guides have been published in great profusion for so long, a local used bookstore I frequent has at least 30 at any one time. There are 88 constellations. I should know them all. And even if I can't see them all in my real sky, what excuse do I have in my planetarium sky? I can go south without leaving the farm. I can see Antila the Hun, and mean the Pump. WHY don't I know them all. I could dazzle visitors with my knowledge. I've even written tributes to overlooked constellations like Leo Minor. Actually come to think of it, all but about 20 constellations might fall in that overlooked category, and half of those are heard of more for astrology than astronomy.
But I haven't done that. I fight it. I once attended a 'constellation shootout' at a regional planetarium conference under a big dome. The winners knew them all. I should be a winner. But I'm not.
So I tell myself, most people who enjoy hobbies don't know everything about them. Most people who visit Yellowstone don't see every geyser. You see want you want to see, or what you have the energy to see .. or... what fullfills whatever it is that drove you to look in the first place. And whatever drives me to look at the stars is apparently NOT a deep desire to know them all! Thinking about it, you can't know a tiny fraction of them anyway. Inspirational songs say that the creator knows every star by name - maybe so we don't have to. Anyway, constellations are arbitrary. They are past records of other people in other times who saw things. Nobody named them all, so perhaps nobody needs to KNOW them all.
There's a funny line in one of the Indiana Jones movies - he got lost in his own museum. They use it as a joke, or an indication of incompetence, but I think maybe its just an equally valid approach to life. Get lost in your own sky. A favorite old song goes, lets lose ourselves, go completely astray, and find ourselves again. I do that sometimes in my little woods out back - getting lost just for a moment has benefits - it resets our bearings, shows us how little control we really have. And theres a rush of familiarity when we find ourselves again which is pleasant. Reassuring. Makes us appreciate maybe what we stop seeing after awhile if we never get off the beaten path (which we beat, along with countless others).
So sometimes I think, its better not to know all the constellations. To get lost and not concentrate on groupings of trees. That way you can take it all in at once. Its more like a living, breathing organism then maybe. Maybe its an excuse, and I'm just lazy. But maybe that ain't all bad.
But I haven't done that. I fight it. I once attended a 'constellation shootout' at a regional planetarium conference under a big dome. The winners knew them all. I should be a winner. But I'm not.
So I tell myself, most people who enjoy hobbies don't know everything about them. Most people who visit Yellowstone don't see every geyser. You see want you want to see, or what you have the energy to see .. or... what fullfills whatever it is that drove you to look in the first place. And whatever drives me to look at the stars is apparently NOT a deep desire to know them all! Thinking about it, you can't know a tiny fraction of them anyway. Inspirational songs say that the creator knows every star by name - maybe so we don't have to. Anyway, constellations are arbitrary. They are past records of other people in other times who saw things. Nobody named them all, so perhaps nobody needs to KNOW them all.
There's a funny line in one of the Indiana Jones movies - he got lost in his own museum. They use it as a joke, or an indication of incompetence, but I think maybe its just an equally valid approach to life. Get lost in your own sky. A favorite old song goes, lets lose ourselves, go completely astray, and find ourselves again. I do that sometimes in my little woods out back - getting lost just for a moment has benefits - it resets our bearings, shows us how little control we really have. And theres a rush of familiarity when we find ourselves again which is pleasant. Reassuring. Makes us appreciate maybe what we stop seeing after awhile if we never get off the beaten path (which we beat, along with countless others).
So sometimes I think, its better not to know all the constellations. To get lost and not concentrate on groupings of trees. That way you can take it all in at once. Its more like a living, breathing organism then maybe. Maybe its an excuse, and I'm just lazy. But maybe that ain't all bad.
2 comments:
Learn all 88 constellations? I'm not at all sure that I know 88 things about any one subject. I can tell you that I will never learn them all even though I have learned about a number of them. I think that if one knew all of the constellations that contain a first magnitude star then one would be head and shoulders over most people. I'm not even sure that I could rattle off the twelve zodiacal constellations in any order, that should probably come first. Every time I build a new constellation outline projector I tend to remember what it is and where it is. I find that I no longer worry about "not knowing" enough to get through a program and am starting to worry that I'm falling into a rut by just repeating the same program time after time. Just about the time I think the bloom is off the cherry, I get a new group of people. I had a group of six last Sunday that had never been and learned about me from someone on my email list that forwarded the email to them. Four of them signed up for the list (yes there were two married couples so I guess that was a 100% sign up rate). I have a group of ten coming tonight and two had been here before and eight are new. One just never knows.
I have noted that attendance has fallen off in this second year and it will be really interesting to see how the total Christmas Show goes. I think I read somewhere that only something like 2% of people on a mailing list will respond, so if I want say 20 people to show up constantly then I need a mailing list of 2,000 to accomplish that. Since I'm not even at 200, my return is more like 22%, which is outstanding. My experiment this year is to do all but one repeat shows and see what happens to viewership.
Ah....what constellation to learn next.
While I don't know an actual count I've certainly presented a large number of shows under a dome since the late 60's, yet I never have known ALL the constellations. "Learning" them depends on where you live or have traveled (real sky) and/or what type of projector you have worked with (artificial sky). I learned most of what I know under a machine which didn't actually project that many stars. Later on, I had the opportunity to work with machines that projected down to at least 5.5 magnitude, which provided more opportunity under an artificial sky. Much of the southern hemisphere star field is still unknown to me. Knowing the major constellations of the Northern hemisphere including those of the zodiac are likely the most important IMHO in so far as giving "public" shows. If someone in the audience asks you to point out one you don't know, view that as a perfect opportunity to grab a star chart and a red-filtered flash light and hand THEM the pointer and find it together!
I submit that people don't mind having things repeated. Anytime your show is live, it is by nature "fresh." People will pick up or hear something "new" each time they attend. Audience members almost "expect" to hear something that is familiar. Remember, it is not like they are taking a class from you, they are there as a form of recreation and relaxation, and they may not see your shows more than once or twice in a year, if that.
Just keep YOUR energy up for every show (no matter how repetitive it seems to you) and the audience will always have a positive experience.
Hope ALL of you had a wonderful Christmas. Best wishes to all as we start the New Year. May your stars shine brightly, both the real ones and your artificial ones too
Post a Comment