International SUNday in Zadar, Croatia

this is the main message area for anything solar :)
Post Reply
User avatar
Bojan
Ohhhhhh My!
Ohhhhhh My!
Posts: 84
Joined: Fri Mar 25, 2016 3:19 pm
Location: Ottawa, Canada
Has thanked: 8 times
Been thanked: 11 times

International SUNday in Zadar, Croatia

Post by Bojan »

I was taking some vacation in Croatia a few weeks ago, which coincided with International SUNDay. I drove to the nearest large town and they had one of those "to scale" solar system representations. Perfect! I setup right beside the Sun with my Solarmax 40.

And then the fun DIDN'T start. I'm fluent in English, Croatian, German, and French, and in over an hour, 100 people said "no I don't want to look through your scope" in all 4 languages.
I've been doing this over over 10 years and I can count the number of people on one hand who have said no. I was actually getting very discouraged, and I was wracking my brains trying to figure out what was wrong. I didn't want to admit it to myself, but the issue was, that in Croatia during tourist season, you are sold EVERYTHING. Water, trinkets, bathrooms, hell, even the air you breath. After coming to this realization that people thought I was going to charge them to look through my telescope (the horror!) I started yelling the word "free" in every language I knew. Suddenly there were droves of people, and all was well. It just took me a while to get to that stage.

The thing that really stuck with me was a summer camp of kids that came by with about 60 kids. I approached the camp leader and in Croatian:

Me: Hey do you have a few minutes for me to give a short presentation to the kids about the Sun?
Him: No, I'd rather not, none of them have any money.
Me: That's perfect because it's free!
Him: What do you mean free?
Me: Well, you know, no money, free.
Him: ......"I don't get it, what's the point"?
Me: Well it's so that the children get to learn something new, interesting and fun.
Him: Well I guess if you want...

This just shows that we have to not only educate children, we have to educate the adults too who are supporting this behavior. Needless to say, the day was a wonderful success, but also full of situational peculiarities that I thought you might find interesting.

And of course, the pictures! My grandpa in the red shirt, and my GREAT grandpa at 97 with 4 of his grandchildren.
Attachments
2016-06-26-15.01.25(10).jpg
2016-06-26-12.50.50.jpg
2016-07-01-11.49.25(1).jpg
2016-06-26-16.33.25.jpg
2016-06-26-16.07.57(6).jpg
2016-06-26-14.50.31.jpg
2016-06-26-14.13.14.jpg
2016-06-26-13.54.49(3).jpg
2016-06-26-13.52.55(9).jpg
Last edited by Bojan on Thu Jul 14, 2016 2:05 pm, edited 2 times in total.


Pre-Meade Solarmax40
SolarmxII DS90
Lunt 2" Wedge on ES 127mm Apo
Derek Klepp
Way More Fun to Share It!!
Way More Fun to Share It!!
Posts: 12900
Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2011 10:02 am
Been thanked: 171 times

Re: International SUNday in Zadar, Croatia

Post by Derek Klepp »

That's a real testament to your perseverance and well done.Its a shame that the world is becoming a more taking than a giving one.


User avatar
Carbon60
Way More Fun to Share It!!
Way More Fun to Share It!!
Posts: 14205
Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2012 12:33 pm
Location: Lancashire, UK
Has thanked: 8415 times
Been thanked: 8161 times

Re: International SUNday in Zadar, Croatia

Post by Carbon60 »

Nicely done. It's a cynical world! Still, everyone looks happy enough and it's amazing how many people smile when they see the Sun in a 'new light', probably for the first time ever.

Good perseverance!

Stu


H-alpha, WL and Ca II K imaging kit for various image scales.
Fluxgate Magnetometers (1s and 150s Cadence).
Radio meteor detector.
More images at http://www.flickr.com/photos/solarcarbon60/
User avatar
Montana
Librarian
Librarian
Posts: 34560
Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2011 5:25 pm
Location: Cheshire, UK
Has thanked: 17667 times
Been thanked: 8787 times

Re: International SUNday in Zadar, Croatia

Post by Montana »

What an amazing story, I would never have thought about people being put off thinking they would have to pay. Well done Sir! you are a star :bow :bow :bow

Alexandra


User avatar
marktownley
Librarian
Librarian
Posts: 42270
Joined: Tue Oct 18, 2011 5:27 pm
Location: Brierley Hills, UK
Has thanked: 20424 times
Been thanked: 10243 times
Contact:

Re: International SUNday in Zadar, Croatia

Post by marktownley »

Lovely!


Image
http://brierleyhillsolar.blogspot.co.uk/
Solar images, a collection of all the most up to date live solar data on the web, imaging & processing tutorials - please take a look!
Post Reply