[Chaos-l] Solar observing April 13 at UNC Science Expo

[Joseph Mack NA3T]

On Tue, 5 Feb 2013, Sayle, Amy E wrote:

> If you can provide a safe way to observe the Sun, we would 
> love to have you help us out that day.

Thanks Jayme for explaining the setup for joint 
Chaos/Morehead events.

I brought my gear to the Morehead public observing for the 
close mars opposition about a decade ago. There, talking to 
people connected to the Morehead, I heard a story about a 
recent Morehead solar observing session where a boy had been 
blinded. According to the family, it was by looking through 
one of the scopes at the Morehead solar observing session.

Since noone else had been blinded by observing through the 
scope, it was clear that there wasn't any problem with the 
observing session. Likely the kid had looked at the sun 
naked eye. When he later found he couldn't see properly, he 
wasn't going to tell his parents that he'd done exactly what 
he'd been told not to do.

The parents sued and the Morehead settled out of court, ie 
the Morehead was not prepared to fight it, despite the 
abundant availability of witnesses who'd not been blinded by 
the equipment.

I heard that as a consequence the Morehead was not going to 
put on any more public solar observing sessions.

Assuming this is all true...

I have not been tracking the Morehead since then and didn't 
know that the solar observing sessions restarted. What 
precautions is the Morehead taking to ensure that the same 
public mischief never happens to anyone putting on 
subsequent solar observing sessions for the Morehead?

What's the Morehead's definition of safe? Who is certifying 
that the scopes are safe? Amy, Morehead, us?

>From a photo that was posted here in the last couple of 
days, I take it that there's solar observing at Astronomy 
Days. How does the museum handle the problem?

How does the museum handle the public unfamiliarity with 
telescopes on public observing sessions, like Astronomy 
Days?

BTW: I contacted and put on a session at a high school for 
the transit of venus. I had expected the transit to be 
really cool. However I found the kid's reaction, to 
unexpectedly seeing it, more uplifting than the transit 
itself. This was another controlled situation. The teachers 
were near my scope. The kids were perfectly behaved. 
Absolute angels everyone of them.

Joe

-- 
Joseph Mack NA3T EME(B,D), FM05lw North Carolina
jmack (at) wm7d (dot) net - azimuthal equidistant map
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