Astro Humor
Submit true stories or new and original humor to Homemade Astronomy.
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The year is 2010. The voice-activated GoTo telescope has become a reality.
I'm at a star party, shoving around my antique Dobsonian, when I hear a voice behind me in the darkness: |
True Story in Cincinnati
My son and I were en route to a music store called MARS,
the musicians resource. It's a huge discount store selling guitars and amps
and musical accessories. We were on 71 North when I suddenly saw something that looked like an
airplane coming down in flames. Then I realized it wasn't coming down.
It was traveling in a straight line across the sky from the west to the east, throwing off
flaming debris in green, red, and yellow colors. It seemed to move
rather slowly across the sky.
Traffic on the freeway literally stopped. People pulled over and
climbed out of their cars to stare at it in amazement. When we finally
got to MARS, I immediately called the local television station and asked
if they had been getting reports about a fireball. The woman who
answered said that they were swamped with calls. I told her that I was
an amateur astronomer and could probably give her a fairly objective
description of the fireball. "That's great!" she said. "Exactly where
were you when you saw it?"
"We were on our way to MARS," I said.
She hung up on me.