The group were engaged in telescope building, from constructing the mount and tube, to grinding the mirrors. These are 10" circular slabs on glass, around 1" thick, ground initially with carborundum grit, using a smaller glass disk as the grinder, creating a smooth, almost parabolic surface. Jerry Heniger and Katy took turns at what appears to be quite hard work.

click for larger image (119K)Katy built her first telescope at 11. She's twelve now. Dad and Mum report that she's the astronomer in the family and that they are just the drivers. Dad's dream is for Katy to send him a postcard from Mars. In her lifetime, it could happen. The postcard would no doubt be electronic, though. If anyone could get to Mars, Katy could.

On to the second stage of grinding, where fine aluminum oxide powder is used to eliminate the minutest unevenness. Apparently there is a third stage which involved some pitch that was bubbling in a tin can. I didn't quite catch what was supposed to happen, but finally a coating of aluminum would create the mirror. Even the uncoated glass is sufficiently reflective to work for bright objects like planets. The mirror coating increases the light reflection ten-fold.

After discouraging passers-by from pushing their arms down the tube of a telescope, John Dobson took us inside for his cosmology talk.

"Semper vires" (always green)

click for larger image (190K)As an introductory remark, a young member of the audience asked Jon if he ground his own lenses. He replied that no, he didn't, but he did occasionally step on his glasses.

John then proceeded to not only turn our world upside down (for as he remarks, if you think up is up, then you're not really seeing), but also our entire universe.

He gently castigated the Big Bang Theory (you know the one. Big chunk of radiation/ matter explodes hurtling matter, which forms galaxies, in space and away from each other. The father away you look the faster the galaxies are hurtling.)

Describing the progression of the theory as the successive application of band-aids, plastered on to cover the series of problems it has encountered, John clearly has no time for it.

Problem #1

How come there was nothing and then there's something?

John objects to the central tenet of creation, that dumps a load of matter randomly in empty space to begin evolution. Somehow, it seems not to jive with common sense. Even assuming something came out of nothing, the something should then divide equally into matter and anti-matter. But it didn't. At least, the observations indicate that it didn't.

Problem #2

There's not enough anti-matter in the universe for the Big Bang to be true.

John described how physicists invented "X" and "anti-X" particles which can convert matter to anti-matter and vice-versa. There is no physical evidence that these particles exist and that's John's complaint. If they did exist, "anit-X" would have to decay (radioactively transform into something else) faster than "X". This would explain why there was more matter. Unfortunately, there would also be loads of magnetic monopoles around (the bits that the "anit-X" particles decay into). But there aren't.

Problem #3

Wot, no monopoles?

Solution, apply another band-aid by picturing the Big Bang as a basketball with a pimple. The pimple expands to become the visible universe, the monopoles stay behind in the basketball. It's all too convenient (not to say contrived) for John's taste.

Problem #4

The Big Bang doesn't work if the visible matter in the Universe is all there is.

So there must be around 90% of the matter in the universe that is invisible. Not only that, it must be very strange, obeying only gravity, not the other physical laws. John is not in disagreement with 90% of the matter being invisible, merely that we should be expected to believe that it's strange. Surely it's more likely that the matter outside galaxies, "the hovering layers" as he calls them, are just material blown away by the stellar winds of a forming galaxy. If you stretch your mind to conceive that the Milky Way is 200 times larger than what you see, then you have a concept of how big the hovering layers are. And why can't you see them? Well, for a start, their density is the equivalent of 20 drops of water in a box that is a billion cubic miles in volume ( a cube with a side of 1000 miles).

click for larger image (84K)By the time John has shown us the band aids, we're ready to rip them off and really heal the wound. In his unique vision, he proposes a politically correct "recycling" universe, where galaxies further away (at around 15 billion light years) are traveling close to the speed of light, they become invisible. Hence there is a boundary to the visible universe. And what's beyond that? John declined to say, but he said what it was not. If was not changeable, finite or divisible. Deftly using relativity and Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, he showed that the disappearing materials reappers in visible space to begin the cycle again.

So his universe has no beginning, no end, but change, finiteness and division as "mistakes" in the sea of tranquillity that surrounds what we can see, a suportive recylcing machine.

John's challenging questions continue to give astrophysicists a run for their money. Long may it continue.

Will YOU go to Mars?

At lunchtime, the cast of "Mars and Beyond" a new Internet-only "TV" Series, were mobbed by children wanting autographs.

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Created by Herb Wright, previously a director at Paramount, the story set in 2014 shows an international team sent to explore the planet most like Earth. Each episode is a progressive cliffhanger, as far from a soap as you could get. Real space suits add to the authenticity.

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Herb (Middle) is joined by Mark (left) , who wrote the business plan and sought funding for this unique venture, and by Christian (right) , who is the webmaster responsible for engineering the site, which is hosted in Las Vegas.

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The crew were run off their feet the entire day by hoards of excited children getting their first look at http://www.cybersci-fi.net.

"The Real Stuff"

From fiction to the real thing. The Mark Taper Auditorium was the venue for a showing of Dan Wetherbee's film about STS86, the fifth Shuttle docking with MIR. Dan and Scott Parazynski, who was flight engineer for the mission, added personal reminiscences to the film, which was a riveting diarized account of the 9 month preparation and flight itself.

Scott, who flew with John Glenn in the famed 1999 mission, was too tall for an earlier MIR mission, as he could not easily fit into the Soyuz module (He was then given a new nick-name of Too Tall Parazynski). However, the 1997 STS86 mission (Atlantis) gave him the chance to space walk with Vladimir Titov, who has spent over one continuous year in space, making him the most experienced living astronaut.

During training Scott's new baby, Luke, visited Dad's workplace in Houston with his Mom to try on Dad's space helmet. A few years needed to grow into that! Still, maybe he'll join Katy on that Mars mission in 2023.

click for larger image (63K)In questions afterwards, Scott revealed that he is 6'3" tall and a medical doctor by training. He has always wanted to be an astronaut and just pursued that dream single-mindedly since he was at school. He applied along with thousands of others and thinks himself very lucky to have been selected. The training lasts a year and then you become an astronaut, available for a mission.

He says the take-offs aren't uncomfortable, because of the position the crew and lying in. The take off lasts about 8 ½ minutes . He doesn't get sacred on the flight as he's too busy with the job, concentrating on what he needs to do. He said that he doesn't dream in space and that you actually need less sleep, because the absence of gravity makes everything less hard work.

Scott is optimistic that the public will be able to take a space trip in the foreseeable future. Missions to Mars will clearly be scientific to start with, but even that will come. With new technology, the journey would be down to 90 days, which brings it within the reach of many people.

He still works for NASA and is in training for a mission to the International Space Station to work on the robotic arm.

And finally…

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There were many exhibits and other talks to enjoy including the Mars RED ROVER (build your own robot) program, which kept the kids enthralled. Something for everyone at this excellent event.

For more information on the continuing Astrofest 2000 activities in other LA area libraries ca be found at http://www.lapl.org/ya/teen_events.html (note - the link appears to no longer have the further astrofest 2000 activities listed at that address - I am told by a representative from the LA Public Library the information will be updated soon).