Visually informed accounts: instructed achievements during planetarium visits and sky observations

Abstract

In this article, the authors explore participants’ accounts of visual scenes produced during the instructed work of observing celestial bodies at planetarium sessions and star-parties. They use as examples some interactions in which participants (i.e. guides and visitors) are giving/following instructions and exchanging descriptions about the observed object based on their (in)direct access to the matter at hand and also on their orientation to the world shared in common. According to the materials analyzed, the authors found that the descriptions of participants’ observations produced and complemented each other’s accounts of the object under scrutiny. This phenomenon helps us understand how instructed observation work is locally and collaboratively managed, which in turn opens the possibility for us to explore how visual accounts are produced through the sequential and categorial aspects of talk. Such enterprise gives guides and trainers a better picture of how visitors make sense of the contents delivered.