December 2020 - OTEvents - Old Town Sidewalk Astronomers

Carnegie Observatory Virtual Conjunction and star party begins at 5 p.m. pacific
by Jane Houston Jones 22 Dec '20

22 Dec '20

https://obs.carnegiescience.edu/ Here's the zoom link. You can join the virtual star party through Zoom or through YouTube live stream. The links are below. We ask that you register for the zoom link (it's free). Zoom: https://carnegiescience.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_FCy2jD9yQOmvhqIcPJSsnw <https://carnegiescience.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_FCy2jD9yQOmvhqIcPJSsnw> YouTube: https://youtu.be/pZtXOguk63U <https://youtu.be/pZtXOguk63U> Date: Monday, December 21, 2020 - 5:00pm Good luck every one! Jane and Mojo -- Jane Houston Jones, retired JPLer *:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-: Twitter: @jhjones @otastro Instagram @janehoustonjones http://www.otastro.org/ Astronomy, travel, music, food, cats

1 0

Countdown to conjunction! Dec 21
by Jane Houston Jones 20 Dec '20

20 Dec '20

I'm resending information about tomorrow's Jupiter and Saturn planetary conjunction because a good percentage of our email list didn't receive last week's note in a timely manner. Also, I'm sharing some photos Mojo and I took using our cell phones on the 16th, 17 and 19th. Check out the views tonight, and also after Monday, and let us know what you see! I love this description of conjunctions from NASA Astronomer Henry Throop in this article https://www.nasa.gov/feature/the-great-conjunction-of-jupiter-and-saturn “You can imagine the solar system to be a racetrack, with each of the planets as a runner in their own lane and the Earth toward the center of the stadium,” said Henry Throop, astronomer in the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “From our vantage point, we’ll be able to be to see Jupiter on the inside lane, approaching Saturn all month and finally overtaking it on December 21. "The planets regularly appear to pass each other in the solar system, with the positions of Jupiter and Saturn being aligned in the sky about once every 20 years." He goes on to remind us of Galileo's views of Jupiter's 1623 conjunction. The whole article is worth a read!! For those who would like to see this phenomenon for themselves, here’s what to do (also copied from the NASA article): * Find a spot with an unobstructed view of the sky, such as a field or park. Jupiter and Saturn are bright, so they can be seen even from most cities. * An hour after sunset, look to the southwestern sky. Jupiter will look like a bright star and be easily visible. Saturn will be slightly fainter and will appear slightly above and to the left of Jupiter until December 21, when Jupiter will overtake it and they will reverse positions in the sky. * The planets can be seen with the unaided eye, but if you have binoculars or a small telescope, you may be able to see Jupiter’s four large moons orbiting the giant planet. (Jane's note: steady your binoculars against a pole or wall for stability.) Here are a few snaps from our driveway in Monrovia over the past few nights, taken shortly after sunset. On the 16th, the moon is below the planets, on the 17th above, and on the 19th the moon is too high in the sky for a photo. I took the first two cell phone photos, and Mojo took last night's photo. Moon, Saturn, Jupiter Dec 16, 2020 Moon, Jupiter, Saturn Dec 17, 2020 Jupiter, Saturn Dec 19, 2020 -- Jane Houston Jones, retired JPLer *:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-: Twitter: @jhjones @otastro Instagram @janehoustonjones http://www.otastro.org/ Astronomy, travel, music, food, cats

2 1

December stargazing from the Old Town Sidewalk Astronomers
by Jane Houston Jones 16 Dec '20

16 Dec '20

Hi stargazers! There has been plenty of publicity about the December Gemind meteor shower, but we haven't really wanted to promote public get-togethers for stargazing. You may still be able to see some for the next few days, as this shower is active from Dec 1 through the 22nd. We're a few days past the peak of Dec 13/14, but if you want to get up and look outside from your darkest corner, between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. you may get lucky! The International Meteor Organization publishes a great weekly and monthly wrap-up of meteor activity. You can bookmark here https://www.imo.net/viewing-the-geminid-meteor-shower-in-2020/ No doubt you have been watching the great planets Jupiter and Saturn in the night sky. I like this write-up from Astronomy Magazine: https://astronomy.com/news/2020/12/jupiter-and-saturn-will-form-rare-christ…. Keep looking low in the southwest sky an hour after sunset. December21 is the closest of conjunction, and both this article and NASA's What's Up video shows where to look and what's up with that! I'm sure you've been watching the pair get closer to one another over the last several months! https://youtu.be/NEVCDhEyKx0 One fun at-home stargazing project is sketching the moon. I've been sketching and writing about lunar observing for over 30 years. My first lunar writeup, for the Sidewalk Astronomers newsletter was called "A day in the life of the moon". It features whimsical lunar phase drawings made by my mom Barbara Miller, now 90 and still drawing and painting! http://photo.whiteoaks.com/2009-galileo&me/slides/moonwriteup004.html For your armchair enjoyment, here is my 2009 sketching series honoring the 400th anniversary of Galileo's own first telescopic sketches in 1609. I used a small small refractor of a similar aperture to Galileo's own 1609 telescope, but with 20th century optics. My series of sketches recreate Galileo's own sketches of sunspots, stars and clusters (like the Pleiades and Orion's Trapezium stars), planets and their moons (the famous Galilean satellites of Jupiter) and moon phases. Galileo even sketched Jupiter and unknown-at-the-time Neptune, and I sketched them both, too. Scroll http://jane.whiteoaks.com/2009/05/25/chasing-galileo-sketches-through-a-sma…. I used the same small 3" x 5" (or occasionally 5" x 8" spiral bound Strathmore sketch pads and Faber Castell blacklead pencils I used to start this hobby decades ago. If you decide to try sketching, send me some of your examples. Over and out! Jane -- Jane Houston Jones, retired JPLer *:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-: Twitter: @jhjones @otastro Instagram @janehoustonjones http://www.otastro.org/ Astronomy, travel, music, food, cats

1 0