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by Jane Houston
The corner of 24th and Noe Streets is just a few blocks from San Francisco's Halloween Central, Castro Street. That street was jam-packed with thousands of costumed celebrants and just as many out-of-town looky-loos last night, Halloween. 24th Street was a great place to be on Halloween too. Tiny teletubbies, pint sized princesses, and medium sized apartment buildings, one pizza slice, three Darth Mauls, and alot of sailors, at least four wizards and Fred Flintstone thought so too.
Plenty of Castro Street denizens walked by. Some of their costumes were pretty wild. There must be a feather boa, and gold lame and fishnet stocking (large size) shortage right now in the great city by the bay! These were just a few hundreds who stopped by to get some tasty eye-candy from the Sidewalk Astronomers. There were three of us and two telescopes. I didn't count how many stood in the line and took a look, but John Dobson brought 500 purple flyers and came away with less than 100. So at least that many sets of eyeballs got Jumpin' Jupiter and Snazzy Saturn views along with their other tricks and treats last night..
The busy neighborhood called Noe Valley is full of bookstores, residential flats, and many restaurants. It was hopping till 10:30 PM when we left. The partyers just moved down a few blocks to the real action after that. Each store on our street stayed open and offered candy to the kids. Residents were outside their front doors, all decked out in their holiday finery, and responding to every "Trick or Treat" uttered, with the usual dental delights. The number 48 Muni bus stopped just like it did two weeks ago when we were set up on the same corner. Same driver, too! All got our, took a look, boarded the bus again, and went on their costumed way.
Our treats included a glorious clear warm night, no moisture in the air, no wind and a nice street corner right outside an Italian restaurant, from which we offered the solar system to our visitors. Fall is the grand season in San Francisco - our best weather of the year, and last night was the best of the best. We aimed the 6 inch Pierre Schwaar "Red Dwarf" and 12.5 inch "Strider", my reflectors, at Jupiter at 60 to - 125X for an hour or two, 'till Saturn rose. Then we kept the small scope on Jupiter and moved the big scope over to Saturn. We pumped up the power to 202X as the lines got shorter.At least half the first two hours of visitors were kids with parents in tow. The last hour and a half were mostly older kids, some who came back after their dinner for more dessert. Five moons were visible 'round Saturn, and Jupiter's 4 were in a nice lineup of three in an arrowhead shape on one side and arrow shaft on the other. It was great fun while Jupiter's great red spot rotated to prime viewing on the central meridian, too.
Standing on a busy street corner on Halloween isn't for everyone. There was one giant who bumped up against the 12.5 incher, for example. I kept the celebrants away from the business end of the large dobsonian, while my sweetie aimed and explained. I primed them for the views as they were waiting in line, answering questions and dispensing facts. Some sugar crazed kids didn't notice there was a big black thing between them and their destination and we were forced to reaim frequently. Forgetting the Telrad wasn't so bad as we were able to sight off a corner of the mirror box. We didn't get alot of candy. And we had to stand and talk for 4 hours 'till we were hoarse and our legs were sore. But we got to introduce a whole flock of fun people to the most glorious of views attainable from the city, many for the very first time. And we got to be with John Dobson, sharing the night sky of his beloved San Francisco to its colorful inhabitants. That was treat enough for me.