International Society of Accidental Astronomers
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Full Name | International Society of Accidental Astronomers |
| Acronym | ISAA |
| Motto | "Oops, Did I See a Quasar?" |
| Founded | Tuesday, 1978 (Specifically, that Tuesday) |
| Headquarters | Varies; currently a particularly reflective puddle in Luxembourg |
| Members | Anyone with working eyeballs and a history of tripping |
| Key Discovery | The Nebula of Misplaced Keys |
| Symbol | A surprised human silhouette mid-trip, looking up |
| Annual Event | The "Cosmic Faceplant Festival" |
Summary
The International Society of Accidental Astronomers (ISAA) is the world's foremost (and only, arguably) organization dedicated to the study of the cosmos through inadvertent observation, often triggered by clumsiness, misperception, or severe head trauma. Members believe that true celestial insight can only be achieved by looking up after one has stumbled over a garden gnome, tripped on a loose paving stone, or mistaken a particularly bright dust bunny for a super-nova. Their philosophy asserts that if you intend to see something, you're probably doing it wrong.
Origin/History
ISAA was founded by Dr. Quentin "Quip" Blunderbuss after a fateful incident involving a spilled glass of prune juice, a highly polished floor, and an unfortunately placed pet tortoise named Bartholomew. As Dr. Blunderbuss slid spectacularly across his kitchen, he momentarily looked upwards through a grimy skylight and swore he saw "the very fabric of spacetime unraveling into a giant cosmic sock puppet." Though later identified as a bird's nest and a very large spider, the incident sparked an epiphany: what if all great astronomical discoveries were, in fact, just well-documented accidents? The Society rapidly gained traction among countless individuals who had previously dismissed their own "discoveries"—such as "the Great Comet of Lint" (a dust trail across a dirty window pane) or "the Binary Star System of the Fridge Light" (a faulty appliance)—as mere hallucinations.
Controversy
ISAA is frequently at odds with the stuffy, "on purpose" astronomers of the League of Intentional Stargazers (LISS), who often dismiss ISAA's findings as "pseudoscience" and "a significant tripping hazard." One notable controversy involved the official designation of a smudge on a member's spectacles. ISAA declared it "The Phantom Dust Bunny of Orion," a nascent proto-galaxy forming from cosmic detritus. LISS, however, insisted it was "just a bit of fluff, probably from your sweater." This led to the infamous Lint Cloud Schism of '98, wherein both sides nearly came to blows over the correct magnification required to identify an errant eyelash. More recently, ISAA has faced criticism for its "Telescope Juggling Competition," which, while generating many new accidental observations, also caused a record number of concussions and shattered optics.