Sky & Telescope - August 2019 - 84

FOCAL POINT by Dennis Kelly

Encounters With Police

A criminal justice expert who also stargazes offers safety tips for amateur astronomers.

skies and a minimum of stray light.
Yet many of us live in metropolitan
areas, with their light-polluted skies.
Observing closer than one might wish
to people and their homes can create
extra safety concerns for the stargazer.
As we're all aware, unfamiliar noises or
suspicious ﬁgures in the dark can result
in calls to the police to investigate.
Amateur astronomers pose a special
challenge to law enforcement because
they work at night and engage in
practices that might be unexpected and
unclear to non-astronomers. No human
being is really good at rapidly assessing
ambiguous situations in the dark, not
even a police ofﬁcer.
I might best sum up the following
pointers for amateurs with this overall
recommendation: Make your activity as
clear as possible.

Some speciﬁc suggestions:
* Have any star charts or atlases clearly
visible. Also, if you're observing with
binoculars, you might wish to have a
book about binocular astronomy on
hand. Most people, including police
ofﬁcers, don't know that binoculars
can be used for astronomy, so you
could be mistaken for a stalker or
window peeper.
* If you park at a site away from home,
leave a paper or cardboard sign on
your dashboard that says "Amateur
Astronomer at Work."
* If your telescope has an unconventional design, you might want to put
some reﬂective tape on your tube
or mount. Remember, most people,
including police ofﬁcers, think that
a telescope only looks like a classical refractor. Reﬂective tape might
prevent the police from thinking your

rig is a weapon. (I don't know anyone
who would put reﬂective tape on a
weapon.) As an added beneﬁt, reﬂective tape on your mount might help
you avoid tripping over it in the dark!
* If you're using a device with a light
screen, write or tape something on
the outside of the screen related to
astronomy. It could quickly answer
the question as to why you're, say,
crouched behind a wall at night.
* Don't observe in totally unconventional locations such as unsecured
cemeteries or abandoned properties.
The police are more likely to assume
in advance that anybody encountered at such sites is up to no good.
* If possible, wear clothing or other
indicators that identify you as an
amateur astronomer. Some astronomy clubs now issue patches, cards,
and clothing, which serve that purpose nicely.
Two ﬁnal issues worry me the most,
but I have no answer for them. Many
telescopes have red dot ﬁnders, and
many amateurs use green laser pointers, either of which police could confuse
with being part of weaponry. Another
issue is ﬂashlights, many of which can
look like gun barrels in the dark.
Police aren't out to frighten or hurt
amateur astronomers. But only a hermit
on a desert isle would be unaware of the
many recent cases of unarmed citizens who have been shot by police. As
amateur astronomers, if we leave a path
of "cookie crumb" clues for law enforcement to make instantly obvious what
we're doing, hopefully they won't notice
that red dot ﬁnder until after they ask
for a quick view through your scope!
¢ DENNIS KELLY, an amateur astronomer for most of his life, holds two criminal justice degrees, a B.S. from Northern
Michigan University and an M.S. from
Michigan State University.

AUGU S T 2 019 * SK Y & TELESCOPE

SE A N WA LK ER / S&T

AMATEUR ASTRONOMERS NEED dark

Sky & Telescope - August 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - August 2019