Bar-rio Window

How can the Sun be covered entirely from anywhere in the barrio?

Answer: close one eye as you extend your arm and hand toward the sun and position your taco so that it covers it..

Looking through the eyepiece of a $4,500 refractor telescope just before dusk at the local barrio observatory(in monterey park,ca), my eyes locked onto a most gorgeous sight--Saturn. I've seen the planet countless times in books, magazines and on TV, but never through a telescope. This summer would be my only chance to view it low in the western sky and visible to the naked eye before the sun gradually obstructs its view for another 15 years.

My nephew and I tried for many days, with our new telescope, to locate Saturn in the unwholesome skies of our city, only to be disappointed time and time again. (The instructions and guidelines on the telescope box, we think, should include a disclaimer for fledgling astronomers which warns of the continual failures that accompany night sky viewing). When we could no longer do it ourselves, we humbly looked to the experts and met them on their turf. We journeyed only a few miles from my home in Downey, Ca to a fairly unknown community gem, a functioning and very accessible astronomical spot, an observatory.

For the second time this summer we visited the observatory and am still surprised as it stands on the simple, grassy grounds of a small park on the east side of LA. On this particular day in july, we toured the facility and had a chance to use a very expensive refractor telescope provided by the city and JPL and made very available to the public every wednesday night. Sadly, word of Saturn's fading visibility, after this summer, has been slow to reach the residents of the eastside and if they know about it, the novelas have much more appeal and influence.

There were only a handful of folk from the neighborhood gathered around the telescope waiting their turn to view the sexy planet. the experts waved to us to get closer and we were lured by their excitment.

As I waited my turn to look through the eye piece, I wondered what Saturn would look like. I envisioned a blurry figure at best and thought I would have my imagination fill in the rest of the image, but there would be no need to do so. Saturn is truly a wonder. It takes a second or two for the mind and eyes to balance the cosmic idea that saturn is one billion miles away and can accomodate one hundred earths...and that my eyes were seeing only its light traveling forever through space and time. Oh. My. God. No wonder many astronomers admit becoming interested in their field after viewing Saturn through a telescope. It is so out of this world.

It is a very pretty thing.