Sidewalk Astronomy Handouts

I do sidewalk astronomy. Below are some handouts that I distribute to the public in order to answer questions that commonly come up and/or to engage their interest. All of these documents are a work in progress, but may be useful. Feel free to use as you wish.

List of Handouts

  • Buying a Telescope: link

  • Drake Equation: link

  • How Fast Can You Go: link

  • Looking Back in Time: link

  • Proof of the Big Bang: link

  • Source of Elements: link

  • Tallest Mountains: link

Buying a Telescope

The two-sided handout consists of one page that was obtained from the Astronomical League website and another that is from the Orion Telescopes website.

Drake Equation

The Drake Equation estimates how many alien civilizations in the Milky Way we might be able to contact. Just food for thought.

How Fast Can You Go

This handout quantifies the various ways that we are constantly traveling through space - even when we are standing absolutely still. It is meant to make people think about the size of the universe and the very fast speeds involved.

Looking Back in Time

I have found that when you tell people that a star or planet is a certain distance away that they often zone out. So I have instead expressed the distance to objects visible in the night sky in terms of how far back in the past one sees them. This handout is aimed at young children. It seems to be very effective inasmuch as it makes them think about their world in a new way.

Proof of Big Bang

I get a lot of push-back from the public when I mention that the Big Bang theory largely explains both the history and current composition of the universe. Many, and perhaps most, people seem to think that the Big Bang theory is still unproven.

To address this issue, I have created a seriously-too-wordy handout that lists all of the evidence that points to the Big Bang hypothesis being valid. There are quite a few independent observations that all come to the same conclusion.

Source of Elements

This handout lists how the elements are made, and also what elements are necessary in the human body.  The objective is show people that there is a direct relationship between remote astronomical processes and themselves. To this end, all visual references to elements are color-coded to match.

For each element necessary for humans, I have included the proportion both by mass and by count, so people get to think about the two metrics, and so they understand that there is no single answer as to how much of the human body is made up of a given element.

Tallest Mountains

When looking at the Moon one question that is often asked are how high are the mountains. This handout provides numbers. It also puts the Moon and Earth in a larger context.

Feedback

Any feedback is most welcome.

Graeme Birchall
Sep/2021