Lunar Eclipse

Location: Adler Planetarium

Date: Wednesday, October 08, 2014; 3:00-7:00 am

The lunatic is in my head

I must admit that there must be something seriously wrong with my head to have said yes to this one, which required me to leave my apartment at 2:30 am.  When Michael had first asked me about this I had laughed, but earlier that afternoon I realized that there was nothing else going on in my life anyways and so I called him and said that I could come.  He said that while he wouldn't be there, I should check-in with someone named Yola.  I guess I was going for the Lunar Eclipse and a 'Blood Moon' at that…whatever it means.

'Blood Moon'

I took a cab and arrived at Adler just before 3 am, to see that many people had gathered outside with their telescopes and cameras at the ready.  There was even a TV truck there.  Looks like this was going to be a fun evening…night…dawn.  After checking-in at the Volunteer station I found Yola stationed outside the ‘SVL’.  She said that all of our demonstrations would be related to the Lunar Eclipse, starting with my first station, which was to understand the principle of telescopes using lasers, lenses and mirrors.  Yola said that Michael had called me a “Seasoned After Dark Volunteer”, and that I could figure the experiment out.  Ok then.  There was a laser plugged in with either single or multiple beams and I had a variety of glass objects available, such as convex and concave lenses, mirrors, prisms etc. and through this hopefully I could explain to people the inner workings of a telescope. 

You raise the blade, you make the change

You re-arrange me 'til I'm sane

At 3:30 am the gates opened and a huge influx of people came in...and for some reason all of them assembled at my station.  Everyone was looking at me with anticipation of recreating something cool and I started by asking how is it that we can capture the light from a star billions of miles away.  The laser represented the light source and I was encouraging the visitors to use the lenses and mirrors to come up with a solution.  It was interesting to see them realize how to use convex lens for converging the light into a point and use concave lens for magnifying.  I was trying to also correlate this with some real life examples, like the corrective lenses that many people were wearing.  A mom came with young kids – which was surprising at this hour – and they were excited to see the whole setup.  The wanted to know more about prisms and I showed them how we can separate light using a torch - which was perhaps an appropriate homage to one of the greatest rock albums that is consistent with our theme for tonight.  

One girl came in and engaged me in a debate on whether planetary bodies have an effect on peoples psyche or physiology. My argument was no, since the laws of gravitational attraction are the only ones that could affect this, and while the planetary bodies and stars were big enough  to exert gravitational pull, our bodies are just not that big, or that close to them.  I mentioned how scientists have done research with full moon and water in human bodies, to check if it is affected like the tides; and have not identified any impact.  She was persistent in her line of questions and I appreciated her passion.  We discussed about life on other planets and I stated “absence of evidence isn’t evidence of absence”.  She then asked if what I said was true, why I was discounting the effect of planets on humans.  Touché Mademoiselle!  I said that was fair and we then discussed if the cosmic radiations have a specific effect on people, since we do say that everyone’s “wired differently”. She said that she had enjoyed talking with me and thanked me a lot but in reality the pleasure had been mine.

You lock the door

And throw away the key

There's someone in my head but it's not me

My next duty was “Hula Hoops Pocket Science” wherein I was to walk about with ‘Hula Hoops’ and explain why we have lunar eclipses only twice a year.  I went outside where the party was well and truly on and everyone was gathered around the telescopes, not all of which were Adler’s.   It was getting close to the time for the total eclipse and it was the perfect time to be outside.  I looked through the telescopes at the Moon, as well as through another one at Jupiter and it’s 4 main satellites.  It was one of the more brilliant things that I have seen and I could actually see the color gradations of Jupiter.  The “Blood Moon” was visible as well and this celestial experience was truly magnificent.  As I walked about people would ask why I was carrying my props and that would be my cue to ask their help in an experiment.  I would put the hoops around their necks and mention that one of those was the orbit of the Earth and the other was the orbit of Moon, with their head being the Sun.  Then I would demonstrate how due to Moon’s minor orbital tilt of 5 degrees, the two orbits only overlap twice in a year, hence having 2 lunar eclipses. I had a lot of fun with this one, working outside as well as all the sections of the museum that were open.  During this demo, at one stage I even wore a “Star Costume” for a picture. Don't ask.

The 'Arts & Crafts' supplies

For the final 45 minutes of my shift I was stationed outside the ‘Definity Theater’ where there was an ‘Arts & Crafts’ activity table for kids…seriously kids were out of bed at this hour.  Amongst the coloring and activity books, there was a folder with cutouts to make rockets, and a station to make a “viewer” for the Solar Eclipse viewing party on October 23^rd.  As people came to take a look, I would tell them how to make the viewer, which was cutting a window in a cardstock sheet, covering with Aluminum foil and poking a pinhole in it, because as everyone knows, you never look at an Eclipse directly.  One gentleman came and was fascinated by the rocket model.  He told a story of how he and his brother had made a rocket as kids, filling it with gasoline, and when launched, it had gone two blocks horizontally.  I said that it was an impressive feat, since I did not expect it to go that far, horizontal or otherwise.  Luckily no one was injured and nothing was set on fire.  He said that incidence was the end of his rocket building career.

One other kid came and I asked if he wanted to see a Solar Eclipse.  When he nodded, I showed it to him using his dad’s head as Earth, a golf tee as Moon and a flashlight as Sun.  Time was up and so went returned the hoops and flashlight in the volunteer office.  It was 7 am when I left and even though I was tired, the night had been worth my while.  I had seen the “Blood Moon” and Jupiter and its satellites.  It isn’t every day that you see sights like those.

And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear

You shout and no one seems to hear.

And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes

I'll see you on the dark side of the moon 

Lyrics written by Roger Waters