Author: Róża Chojnacka

In this article I wish to describe several opinions often uttered by the people not familiar with astronomy. It is quite difficult to be an expert in every field of knowledge, but I observed that there is a considerable number of ignoramuses in this sphere. May it be owing to astronomical education in schools, which isn't still good enough? Or maybe too little popularity astronomy in the media? The reasons can be various.

This is a list of typical stereotypes concerning the astronomy and other convictions (in a random order):

1. Astronomy, gastronomy, astrology, gastrology are synonyms. Astronomer can predict the weather and the future.
2. A meteor differs from a meteorite only by the name. A satellite is a meteor too, which people show as a flying airplane.
3. In Australia, the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east. For Australians the north is in the south.
4. Stars have horns.
5. The brightest star in the sky is the Polaris.
6. A comet flies always in direction opposite a tail of it.
7. Live "100 light-years"! A light-year is a unit of distance, not time.
8. In the summer, there is warmer, because the Earth is closer to the Sun.
9. Pleiades is a different name of Ursa Minor.
10. On the Moon we can see volcanoes.
11. The question: where has satellite so much fuel from.
12. The full Moon is always visible on Fridays.
13. Every second person tries to look through the telescope using counterbalance as an ocular.
14. A telescope is a panacea for clouds and bad weather in general. If we can't see something with the naked eye, we can get with a telescope.

Translated by Monika Rap