Page 60 - Astronomy - October 2017 USA

The key here is to focus on the
A rocky entrance Comet question and not to stray too far
A block of frozen
gases and dust; afield. It’s tough — believe me.
forms a coma as it Often I keep talking about a subject
approaches the Sun
because I have subconsciously made
the judgment that the other person
should be as interested about it as I
Asteroid am. It’s worse, however, if other
Stony or metal-rich
rock in space; smaller experts are present. Then what
than a planet and would be a simple explanation often
bigger than a
meteoroid transforms into a knowledge com-
petition. In the meantime, I’ve lost
my target audience.
Meteoroid
Stony or metallic debris
in space; can range up Bolide Lack of examples
to about 10 meters
A fireball that explodes in Consider the question (asked in a
Earth’s atmosphere
way a non-astronomer would phrase
it), “How do you know the power of
a telescope?” Most of us in the know
would reply that anyone can calcu-
late the magnification of a telescope/
Meteor
The streak of light in Earth’s eyepiece combo by simply dividing
skies formed by infalling
debris burning up the focal length of the telescope by
the focal length of the eyepiece.
Simply?
Even if we take the time to care-
Fireball Meteorite
An exceptionally The solid portion of a fully explain what focal length is, it’s
bright meteor that meteoroid that lands kind of an abstract concept. I suggest
can cast a shadow on Earth’s surface that we offer more. Provide the lis-
tener with an example. If you’re just
chatting and no telescope is around,
One easy jargon-buster is clarifying the difference between meteoroids, meteors, and meteorites. have the questioner imagine one
with a focal length of 100 millime-
ters. Then say, “If we put a 25mm
particular subject matter for a long Often, then, a simple question eyepiece in, the power would be 4
time. Unfortunately, most experts like, “Why does the Moon have (100 divided by 25).” You could even
answer questions the same way no phases?” morphs into a full-blown continue by asking, “What would
matter who is asking them. Years of discussion of planetary motion. And happen if we swapped the 25mm
dealing with their chosen subject you know what? It doesn’t have to. eyepiece out for a 10mm one?” In
offer little versatility in the replies You can show how the Moon’s such a case, the power would
they give. phases work with three rocks — or increase to 10 (100 divided by 10).
In my opinion, many creden- preferably two rocks and a flashlight. If, on the other hand, a telescope
tialed experts make three mistakes:
They give too much information,
they provide no examples, and they Weighing in
liberally use jargon. Mass creates gravity. Because
planets in our solar system have
56.8
Too much information pounds different masses, a 200-pound
person would weigh different
The dreaded “TMI” usually occurs 76.0 amounts on each of them.
in social situations (the kind that pounds
often emerges in childhood or in
a comment about my bathroom 158.8
habits), but it’s equally possible Mercury 181.4 200.0 185.0 pounds 225.0
pounds
pounds
pounds
when an amateur astronomer talks 501.2 pounds
to friends. Except in such cases, Mars pounds
the “too much” is factual in nature
rather than personal.
Venus Saturn Uranus
Earth Neptune
Michael E. Bakich is a Senior Editor at
Jupiter
Astronomy.
60 ASTRONOMY • OCTOBER 2017