Plymouth Library Hosts Humorous Space Speech

Popular astronomy lecturer Mike Best dropped in to the Plymouth Public Library Monday evening for a lecture on the sun, planets, moons—and just about everything else under the stars. 

For about two hours, Best whisked the audience through the solar system, out into the far reaches of the known universe and back again.

“He’s got a wonderful background," said Barbara Bushta, who explained that his folksy wit and unassuming style are what separate him from other astronomy speakers. “He’s very humorous in his presentation and very knowledgeable.”

Best began his talk with a primer on the basics of the solar system, bouncing from one topic to the next with youthful excitement. He explained the differences between planets and dwarf planets (which Pluto was demoted to not long ago), as well as the distinction between “rocky’ planets (Earth and Mars) and gaseous ones (Uranus and Saturn).

“I like to take quantum mechanics and explain it as ‘the ball is round’ and ‘see spot run,’” he said, explaining that he tries to keep his lectures upbeat with his humor because he knows that “astronomy can be dry” for some people.

He showed a series of slides from an overhead projector, which detailed the comparable sizes of the planets to one another, as well as to their respective moons.

Best also spoke for a while on the random matter of the outer reaches of the universe (“comets, asteroids and assorted junk”). But mainly he focused on the Milky Way, which he described in his unique way as “that fuzzy patch going across the sky.”

“It was very interesting,” said Andre Xhafer, who was accompanied by his son, Diogen, and wife, Daniela, who have both seen several of Best’s lectures. “I will definitely come to all of his others.”

After his half-hour primer on the basics of space, Best's focus shifted to the planets Jupiter and Saturn. He explained that while Saturn is best known as the “planet with the rings,” all four of the outer gaseous planets also have them.

“Jupiter is really cool,” he said (not in reference to its temperature), as he began to describe its ring system. “You could not see them unless you were driving by them in your handy-dandy spaceship and you looked really, really close.”

He talked about Jupiter’s red spot, which he said is basically a series of rainstorms and about its series of black splotches on the underside of the planet. Best explained how about 17 years ago a comet “about the size of Plymouth” was passing by the planet and was sucked into it. The comet then broke up into pieces, and “like a broken string of beads” pelted the surface of it, leaving behind the dark markings.

After his slide-show presentation, Best held a drawing where he gave out a variety of astronomy magazines he had displayed on a table. He closed the session with a reading from a copy of Ray Bradbury’s classic science fiction novel Martian Chronicles.

The reading prompted members of the audience to ask him his thoughts on extraterrestrials.

“Credible people are seeing some incredible things,” he said, “and they all can’t be ducks flying around or satellites in the sky.”