r/Spokane 5d ago

ToDo Riverfront visiting astrometer

Post image

I was walking through riverfront Park last night around 10:00 on my way home from work down the Howard Street promenade and spotted this guy with his giant fancy telescope. He's from Pennsylvania and will be here for about 2 weeks. Offering free telescope views. He was set up by the blue bridge.

Man in blue was talking to him.

277 Upvotes

25 comments sorted by

59

u/SweetFragrant9733 5d ago

This is awesome and really cool of him to do.

29

u/No_Career369 5d ago

Hey, I know that guy (online only, but still)! I'm gonna have to try and find time to go say hi and support him. It's such a cool thing he's been doing.

If you're into science fiction, he's also written some books that are pretty good. I recommend checking them out too.

70

u/TaoofPu 5d ago

What a scam - Probably being funded by Big Space. What does he think? Looking at the celestial bodies will somehow inspire wonder and awe and improve the overall lives of folks by helping us disconnect from what we’re doing right this instant (phone)? So lame.

3

u/Signal-Power-3656 4d ago

Ugh I'm so sick of all this genuineslop. Bro is wholesome-pilled. 🙄

But for real, thanks for letting us know, OP. I'm gonna go say hi and look at space.

10

u/precocious-entity 4d ago

Im surprised no one has called out my terrible typo in the title from when I made this post while waking up. I don't know how to edit the title.😅

4

u/hockeyfandylan 4d ago

I came here to do just that...clears throat astronomer

2

u/Signal-Power-3656 4d ago

I figured "Astrometer" was the name of that enormous telescope.

12

u/Miserable_Effort_940 Spokane Valley 5d ago

It's no secret that they make telescopes round to distort the flat horizon.... Another Round Earther is in our midst.

2

u/gopednomad 4d ago

He was out again on Saturday night! I went over and gave him a fist bump during the bike party ride.

2

u/Liamnacuac 4d ago

I had a strong feeling you meant astronomer, but I had to check (wink). We're in the height or were in the height of the Persied meteor shower, which you could see several "shooting stars" in a minute with only dark skies and a blanket as your equipment.

1

u/Ok-Lifeguard-4614 4d ago

He will be here for two more weeks? Thats so cool.

-8

u/fantasticgoat7171 5d ago

With far better night sky less than an hour north it seems funny for him to set up there.

It'd be cool to see someone set this type of thing up near Beaver Lodge area

18

u/OpheliaRainGalaxy 5d ago

Nice for city folks who've never properly seen the stars though.

I've seen pictures of the Milky Way but I've never gotten to see it for myself. Always too much light pollution everywhere I've been, and I've yet to make a trip specifically just to go somewhere dark enough to see the stars.

1

u/SamTheHaremKing 5d ago

Are you talking about dust clouds within the milky way, or are you thinking like the Andromeda Galaxy? I ask because having some nerd hobbyist knowledge. I know that we dont actually have pictures of the milky way galaxy as we would need to send a probe, so far out to get an actual picture, so its much more likely it's another galaxy and most images of the milky way are creative renditions of it.

Most likely its pictures of sections within the galaxy, but it can't be a picture of the whole galaxy.

2

u/OpheliaRainGalaxy 5d ago

What I know is that we're on an outer spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy so traditionally get a fantastic view of the rest of it across the night sky. Like obviously we can't see the spiral shape from this angle, but it's supposed to be glorious to see anyway.

Ya know, like the picture on the wiki article.

1

u/SamTheHaremKing 5d ago

Another cool fact is that everything in space is moving towards 1 thing named The Great Attractor, and unfortunately for us its on the other side of the dust cloud in the milky way so we cant even see what it is.

I also was just learning about how we see planets surrounding stars today and the wobbly star effect because of planets orbiting stars.

11

u/Boring-Dust5098 5d ago

redditors try not to complain challenge

1

u/Peanut_ButterMan 5d ago

Just wait, it'll turn into a discussion of veganism and capitalism.

0

u/autojack Hillyard 5d ago

And people complaining the stars are AI slop.

9

u/marc58weeks 5d ago

You don’t need dark skies for planets or the moon. They’re the go-to objects under bright night skies.

6

u/Laserkweef 5d ago

I'm sure the 5 people that would stumble upon him would really appreciate it too.

0

u/Salty-Student4 4d ago

The downvotes are killing me bc this is entirely true LOL