Free Astronomy Magazine March-April 2020

MARCH-APRIL 2020 A ttendees at a city-wide Syracuse “Maker Faire” playing an infor- mational game of “Meteor Madness.” projects like Planet Hunters, Galaxy Zoo, and others from Zooniverse, or the long-running SETI@Home. For observing hobbyists, there’s no longer a need to buy an expensive telescope at all thanks to commer- cial rent-a-scope projects like Slooh and iTelescope. We no longer wait for a Hubble photobook to be available at a local bookstore – just visit hubblesite.org . A daily tweet reminds us of just how far away both Voyager probes are. Discussions and debates are no longer scheduled, as virtual organi- zations and email lists like Cloudy Nights, Astronomical Spectroscopy, and HASTRO-L host exchanges in near-real time, with collective mem- berships in excess of any local as- tronomy club on the planet. Gone are the days of needing pa- pers of incorporation and board meetings. Create a Facebook group, make a few local connections, and soon you’ve members reading and commenting without establishing a non-profit or buying insurance, ever meeting face-to-face, or charging fees. James Callens’ “Western NY Astronomers” Facebook group is a great example of just that, with members from around the world and active local contributors from the east in the Mohawk Valley As- tronomical Society to the west in the Buffalo Astronomical Associa- tion. The benefits to amateur as- tronomers of such online groups can be highly advantageous! Not only can you be given early notice of meteor shower activity with enough time zone coverage, but observers separated by a few hours’ drive can get reasonable expecta- tions of approaching cloud cover – combined with Aurorasaurus, Ad- miral Robert FitzRoy himself could not have asked for a better real- time (amateur astronomy) forecast- ing service. The easy access to information does come at the cost of strong opinions or misinforma- tion – cases where local organiza- tions with knowledgeable members are still indispensable. One could be led to conclude that there is no in- troductory telescope worth pur- chasing based on reviews from people who look away from their Takahashi just long enough to focus an Astromaster. Perhaps most insid-