Last time I team-taught Astro 100, we started every class with the Astronomy Picture of the Day. We wanted to excite them, and hoped a few of our students might adopt the daily ritual of visiting APOD. That astronomy might become a small part of their daily lives.
In that spirit, here's our Galaxy from APOD, seen from the southern hemisphere, featuring the Coal Sack nebula and Southern Cross.
The legacy of Astro 100 came up twice during my recent trip to a Chilean observatory:
First, on the Dallas intra-airport train -- 2 terminals to go, my collaborator's at the gate trying to hold the plane for me. The next guy over asks why I'm going to Chile. He's impressed, but it's another passenger who pounces. "So, what the heck is dark matter, anyway? And is there really an anti-gravity pushing the universe apart?" So in 30 seconds, as the train accelerates toward my terminal, I explain Dark Energy, and try to convey both the solidity of the evidence and the nuttiness of the concordance universe. Train pulls up, I make apologies and take off running, make it to the gate with a minute to spare.
Second, on the light rail journey home, jet--lagged, I start talking with the 40-ish businessman next to me. Turns out he took a college astronomy class from George Abell -- he not only remembered not only his professor's name, but that he'd discovered important clusters of something. I laughed, said something about Abell clusters of galaxies being among the most massive bound objects in the universe, and that I'd just finished observing four of them.
Despite travel exhaustion, I need to remember that astronomy evangelism is part of my job, and usually great fun.
scientiae-carnival