Reasons

Every now and then, something happens that reminds me of why I decided to teach. A friend ran a public show about quasars in the planetarium this evening, and a group from a local community college came to see the show. This "astronomy 101" class was of all ages, eager to learn, and seemed to be having a good time.

Later, my friend and I were scheduled to use the big scope for an observing project. I stopped by the smaller scopes, where we hold a public telescope viewing session every Friday evening, to find this same group eager for a look at Saturn or Jupiter. With the clouds rolling in, it was clear that they, and I, weren't going to be able to observe this evening. At the request of the instructor who had invited them to visit us, I held an impromptu tour & talk with this group about telescope, taking them upstairs to show them the big scope. I talked a bit about telescopes and quizzed them about some things. One kid, there with his mother, knew all the answers. "What kind of telescope is this?" "catadioptric, or cassegrain", he said. "And how about this one?" "refractor", was his quick reply. He was so eager, so interested, all of us - the adults - laughed, glad to see a kid excited like that.

It seems to me that we are born curious -- and then become incurious unless we are lucky. I hope his mom keeps bringing him to the observatory, because he's well on his way to being one of the lucky ones. After I locked up and left the observatory, I saw them leaving and said "thanks for coming tonight!" His mom said "don't worry...we'll be back."

Good enough.