Shadowy Man

Tronvillian: Perhaps if people would take their noses out of astrology columns every once in a while and look up at the sky they might actually learn something about the universe!!

echidna

You sound like a Scorpio.

The Lone Ranger

A few years ago, I saw a show on the Discovery Channel in which they interviewed some astronomers regarding people's notions of the universe. This guy claimed that he had been working at a California observatory when an earthquake occurred that knocked out the power to the city. (I think it was in the Los Angeles area, but don't quote me on it.)

Anyway, he claimed that during the course of the night, they got dozens of calls from people who wanted to know what those sparkly things were in the sky.

Astonishing, if true.

Cheers,

Michael

[Edited to add: Ab_Normal, if you're around, please check your Private Mail.]

[ October 17, 2002: Message edited by: The Lone Ranger ]</p>

Abacus

I wouldn't doubt it.

I once had a friend who claimed that most of the stars that we see in the sky are not stars at all, but satellites.

Godless Dave

I once spent twenty minutes trying to explain this to my dad. He's usually pretty smart but I think he was just having a slow brain day.

AtlanticCitySlave

It seems obvious to me the girl in class did think. She just didn't know the true answer. It's not like she just sat there and it automatically came to her: ocean. She sat there and thought it over, pondered what it could be, and came up with a guess (hypothesis). She shouldn't be put down because of it (as if you're still in junior high), and at least she had the guts to attempt to answer the question, while everyone else, including you, didn't.

Ernest Sparks

Many years ago, I arrived home in the early evening after a hot August day (northern latitude) to see all the neighborhood kids and their parents outside gazing at a bouncing brilliant UFO just above the northeast horizon. They were all dumbfounded. "That is Capella", I said. "What??" was the reply. "A star!", I replied. "The turbulent air near the horizon causes its light to do that. The formal name of that star is Alpha Aurigae." Later that evening, a few stayed outside and I pointed out that Capella now looked indeed like just a bright star.

This is a case of believing what you see as the real thing. This same scene played again the following Summer in a different neighborhood, and yet again another time. I have not encountered this lately. I suspect that with urban growth and all nobody much notices what is happening in the sky.

NumberTenOx

This smacks of an urban legend, however, from the Feb. 14th, 1999 Los Angeles Times:

"At 4:31 a.m. on Jan. 17, 1994, the people of Los Angeles were shaken from bed by a fierce rumbling. Running outside for safety, many looked up and were surprised to see thousands of glowing objects in the sky, a thousand sparkling points of light. Frightened and fascinated, a good number of those people called Griffith Observatory in the days that followed for an explanation."

"At first, staff members were puzzled. Slowly, they realized what had happened. For the first time in their lives, many citizens of Los Angeles had seen the stars. And they didn't know what to make of them."

...

"The real night sky is now so remote, most people have forgotten what it looks like," says Ed Krupp, Griffith Observatory's director and resident sky spirit. It's so bad, he points out, that during a romantic moment in the movie "Dragnet," Joe Friday's galfriend looks up from the seat of a convertible and exclaims: "Oh, look at the stars! There must be dozens of them!"

Skydancer

Nightfall. Isaac Asimov.

Devilnaut

This sounds like balogny to me. I'm sure you can see stars in the LA sky. How the hell would anyone know to call an observatory or what an observatory even was, if they didn't know freaking stars existed?????