- OTEvents - Old Town Sidewalk Astronomers

Sidewalk Astronomy tonight in Monrovia
by Morris Jones 21 Nov '09

21 Nov '09

The weather looks good tonight for sidewalk astronomy. We'll be at the corner of Myrtle & Lime from about 6:00 'til 9:00, showing the crescent moon and bright Jupiter. It could get a little cold tonight, so we'll be adding clothing layers. Last weekend Jane and I did a little dark sky observing, and I grabbed a few images of some favorite fall and winter objects. Have a look here: http://mojo.whiteoaks.com/2009/11/21/pinwheels-horseheads-and-flaming-stars/ Cheers, Mojo -- Morris Jones Monrovia, CA http://www.whiteoaks.com Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org Twitter: http://twitter.com/mojo_la

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Leonids tonight!
by Jones, Jane H (1862) 16 Nov '09

16 Nov '09

Hi everyone! We saw a few shooting stars from the desert on Saturday night. It was in the 40's at midnight, but the sky was absolutely gorgeous! Mojo and I are working on a story or two combining his gorgeous images from that night. You'll see those in a few days. :-) But tonight is Leonid night! The Leonids are my favorite meteor shower, partly because I've been participating in meteor counting research as an amateur astronomer for a dozen years. But mostly because this shower is well documented in art, culture and history going back to the 900's. It looks like we'll have decent weather tonight for those who want to see a few shooting stars. If you want to see some of this historic meteor shower, the best time for us here in the US is from 12:30 am to 2:30 am. (that's Pacific time) Tuesday morning - aka in less than 12 hours from right now. The time usually recommended for meteor shower watching is the "hours before dawn" timeframe. But this time, because Earth will be plowing through a "denser clump" of meteor dust at that time, the rates will go up a little. Not like the storm years of 1998-2002, when thousands of meteors rained down on the Earth, but a nice reminder that our solar system is an amazing place Still, it won't be raining meteors tonight. Expect maybe 10-20 before midnight and maybe up to 30 per hour during the 12:30 - 2:30 am timeframe. An article recalling the 1999 and the 1899 Leonids is here: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/scitech/display.cfm?ST_ID=2289 Let me know if you see any! I'll pass on your report if you'd like to the Leonid ground-based team, observing from Kathmandu, Nepal. They are counting meteors (and there will be an outburst of maybe 300) right now where it's meteor time in Asia! http://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/ Jane Jane Houston Jones Senior Outreach Specialist, Cassini Program JPL - 4800 Oak Grove Drive, MS 230-205 Pasadena, CA 91109 818-393-6435 jane.h.jones(a)jpl.nasa.gov NEW! 2009 What's Up For November-The Crab Nebula http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup-archive.cfm

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Taurids, Leonids, good views in dark skies
by Jane Houston Jones 10 Nov '09

10 Nov '09

Hi everyone, we are really looking forward to our weekend dark sky getaway on the 14th. Weather permitting, we'll be sure to see Taurids and Leonids and more, oh my! Mojo mentioned it to you all a few weeks ago. To repeat part of his invite: "We travel about 160 miles from home in Monrovia out I-10 to a spot on BLM land south of Joshua Tree. Most of us make a night of it, catching a couple hours sleep as we can, and enjoy breakfast the next morning at Chiriaco Summit. Some will leave around midnight to make the trek back." With the time change it gets dark early now, so that means you'd need to arrive before 5:30 p.m., It is dark in the desert, and you travel on a 2 mile dirt road, and you need light to park on soft sand with many pokey bushes and cacti. This site is unfortunately not suitable for large trucks or RV's. Let us know if you'd like to join us, and we'll send the map. Plan to bring plenty of water, a comfortable chair and layers of clothing for (possibly chilly) meteor observing after midnight to dawn. I'm toying with a Leonid morning trek (that would be Monday night the 16th until dawn on Tuesday the 17th) depending on the weather. Maybe Warner Springs, maybe all the way to our observing site. I get all sentimental about the Leonids as Mojo and I have been observing them as part of the NASA Airborne Meteor missions for many years. The bonus view will be Saturn in Leo - been a while since we've had a good look at the real Lord of the Rings. :-) Now, on to business! My What's Up November podcast is all about the Crab Nebula in Taurus and the Leonids get a brief mention at the end. Youtube http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=JPLnews#p/u/0/DSRP2XoLgxk - It is also on the JPL front page and lots of other places I mention every month. Blogging about the Leonids: I've been taking a trip down memory lane this week. You can read my story about flying through the 1999 Leonid Storm, and also an interesting (at least to me) article about the first airborne mission one hundred years earlier. It is the story of a woman astronomer (Dorothea Klumpke) observing the Leonids in a balloon! http://jane.whiteoaks.com/ Here's looking up! Jane -- Jane Houston Jones Monrovia, CA Websites: http:www.whiteoaks.com Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org My NASA JPL What's Up podcast: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup.cfm Twitter: http://twitter.com/jhjones http://twitter.com/CassiniSaturn Blog: http://jane.whiteoaks.com/

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Monrovia tonight, Dark sky observing
by Morris Jones 31 Oct '09

31 Oct '09

Tonight should be great in Old Town Monrovia, we'll be there from about 7:00 'til 9:30 or so, showing a large gibbous moon and Jupiter. A lot of people are curious about our dark sky observing nights. We do often get together and trek out from under the Los Angeles light dome to see the real night sky and look at galaxies and nebulae that are impossible to see from within 100 miles of Los Angeles. For a taste of what it's like, Jane and I both wrote observing reports from our last outing: Mojo's story with some astrophotos: http://mojo.whiteoaks.com/2009/10/19/finally-autoguiding/ Jane's report: http://jane.whiteoaks.com/2009/10/24/another-perfect-stargazing-night/ A little photo album of the setup: http://photo.whiteoaks.com/2009-10-17-chuckwalla/index.html Admittedly our dark sky excursions are mostly for our own benefit. It's a great joy to enjoy the seclusion of the deserts around Southern California. We prefer our out-of-the-way location to the more crowded locations like Mt. Pinos. Besides that, our sky is darker. :) We travel about 160 miles from home in Monrovia out I-10 to a spot on BLM land south of Joshua Tree. Most of us make a night of it, catching a couple hours sleep as we can, and enjoy breakfast the next morning at Chiriaco Summit. Some will leave around midnight to make the trek back. Even though we are certainly getting away from crowds, we don't mind having you join us for one of our excursions. It's amazing to discover what a modest telescope can do when you get away from the bright skies of Los Angeles. It's a treat to watch the Milky Way overhead, see satellites and meteors, and really see the constellations you didn't know were there. We're often limited by the weather, and we'll cancel if it's cloudy, too windy, too hot, or otherwise inclement. The desert ground at our location is soft, and a couple of visitors have had bad luck getting stuck in the dirt. It's admittedly not a good place to get stuck. There are no facilities of any kind; Jane and I bring along a portable environmental toilet. And if you come you need to be prepared with layers of clothes, plenty of water, and preferably dim red flashlights to help you navigate. With all that in mind, you should consider it. We're a friendly social group, and love sharing views through the telescopes. Our trips to the desert will not be announced here. We generally pick the Saturday night closest to new moon. That's a homework assignment. :) If you'd like to join us and try out that telescope in your closet on a real dark sky, send me a note that week and find out if we're going. It's a three-hour trip from Monrovia, and we generally try to arrive about an hour before sunset. Think about it ... Cheers, Mojo -- Morris Jones Monrovia, CA http://mojo.whiteoaks.com Old Town Astronomers http://otastro.org http://twitter.com/mojo_la

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Sidewalk Astronomy this weekend
by Jones, Jane H (1862) 30 Oct '09

30 Oct '09

Nothing will stop your intrepid Sidewalk Astronomers from delivering telescopic eye candy. Not even Halloween! Tonight, Friday the 30th we'll be at One Colorado in Pasadena. Now we always set up our telescopes "someplace" between Fair Oaks and Pasadena Avenues, but tonight we're going to be as close to or in the courtyard of One Colorado to support the Spitzer Science Center's exhibit. They are part of the 3-week Pasadena Arts and Ideas Festival. So stop by and join us, and check out the Spitzer Ask A scientist station, images and videos too! Saturday night, we "hope" to be on our Myrtle and Lime corner in Monrovia with just a couple telescopes. Most of our gang will be doing sidewalk astronomy in their own neighborhoods, so it might just be the two of us. But no matter how many telescopes the view will be BOO-tiful! Finally, before the links, here is my annual spooky astronomical observing list. Hope it's not too scary! http://jane.whiteoaks.com/2009/10/30/spooky-halloween-observing/ Pasadena Arts and Ideas Oct 23-Nov 9th http://artideasfestival.org/index.html Spitzer Science Center and One Colorado presents Fri and Saturday night (next weekend too): All day long: Images from NASA in the courtyard Dusk to 10pm with short videos, demonstrations, "Ask an Astronomer" Dusk to 9:30 Friday night, probably not on Halloween night.Astronomers on Colorado Blvd entrance to One Colorado http://artideasfestival.org/nasa_center.html Jane Houston Jones Senior Outreach Specialist, Cassini Program JPL - 4800 Oak Grove Drive, MS 230-205 Pasadena, CA 91109 818-393-6435 jane.h.jones(a)jpl.nasa.gov 2009 What's Up podcast archives http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup-archive.cfm

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A little star newsletter
by Jane Houston Jones 17 Oct '09

17 Oct '09

This month I talk about the history of the Andromeda Galaxy in my What's Up podcast. It's online here in lots of different formats for you to choose: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup-view.cfm?WUID=224 itunes: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/podcasting/whatsup_index.html All JPL podcastsincluding What's Up here on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=JPLnews#p/u Here's an article on the Universe Today website about my sketching project: I have been observing and sketching the Galilean objects through a small refractor similar to Galileo's ,all year long. It's my way to honor International Year of Astronomy and the 400 years since Galileo first aimed a telescope to the sky and saw wonderful things. http://www.universetoday.com/2009/10/14/amateur-astronomer-is-chasing-galil… I was recently in Canada giving a talk, and met a First Nation Science Educator who was talking about astronomy legends and seeing the Cree Nation sky. I wrote a blog post about some of the star legends - it's here: http://jane.whiteoaks.com/ This experience made me want to devote my next year to storytelling. I'd like to include one seasonal star legend in each of my monthly What's Up podcasts. If you have a favorite myth or star legend. I'm not looking for things you can just google - I can do that myself. I'm looking for stories you learned or heard or love about constellations, the moon, the sun, stars, etc. I really look forward to hearing from you! Mojo and I are heading out to Warner Springs Ranch next weekend to conduct a star party there. It's a great weekend destination, not too far, but far enough, with hot springs, bicycles, horses, horseshoes, tennis hiking on the Anza Trail, and beautiful dark skies too! They offer free stargazing to their guests at least once a month - this will be our second star party there. :-)http://www.warnersprings.com/ Halloween weekend will find is at our usual haunts (get it, "haunts" as in haunted house) Old Town Pasadena Friday the 30th, Old Town Monrovia Saturday the 31st. Listed on our www.otastro.org website, weather permitting, of course. Thats all for this time, Jane -- Jane Houston Jones Monrovia, CA Website: www.whiteoaks.com Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org What's Up October? Andromeda Galaxy! http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup.cfm Twitter: http://twitter.com/jhjones http://twitter.com/CassiniSaturn Blog: http://jane.whiteoaks.com/

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Sidewalk astronomy this weekend
by Morris Jones 25 Sep '09

25 Sep '09

Today the moon phase is "first quarter" which means you'll see a half moon in tonight's sky. That doesn't make sense does it? Shouldn't it be a quarter moon? Actually the term "first quarter" refers to the fact that the moon is one-fourth of the way through its 29.5 day orbit around the earth. In one week the moon will be half-way through its orbit, but we don't refer to its phase then as "half moon," instead we call it "full moon," which it is! (Homework: What then is "third quarter?") Tonight it should be comfortable and clear in Old Town Pasadena, and we'll be featuring the first-quarter moon and Jupiter. We try for Colorado Blvd. somewhere between Fair Oaks and Pasadena Ave., near Delacey, depending on parking, from 7:30 'til 9:30 or so. Look for Jupiter to the left of the moon tonight -- it will be the brightest object in the sky besides the moon, with a steady cream-colored glow. In the telescope we'll easily see the four giant moons of Jupiter discovered 400 years ago by Galileo. Tomorrow night (Saturday) looks to be a carbon copy of tonight. Many of our astronomers will be set up at the Huntington Library for a special astronomy program, and will give out views through a great variety of telescopes. We'll also have at least a couple at our traditional spot in Monrovia at the corner of Myrtle & Lime, at Library Park, 7:30 - 9:30 p.m. A few of us had a good time under a true dark sky in the Colorado Desert last weekend. I did a little astrophotography and wrote up a little trip report: http://mojo.whiteoaks.com/2009/09/21/a-perfect-night-in-the-desert/ First quarter moon brings out lots of telescopes to give out views. Other LA astronomers and clubs will be setting up all over the place, including the big monthly first-quarter star party at Griffith Observatory. I hope you get out and catch some photons! Best regards, Mojo -- Morris Jones Monrovia, CA http://mojo.whiteoaks.com Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org Twitter: http://twitter.com/mojo_la

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sidewalk astronomy in Monrovia tonight
by Morris Jones 29 Aug '09

29 Aug '09

A couple of our brave sidewalk astronomers are planning to try setting up in Monrovia this evening, on the corner of Myrtle & Lime. It will likely be a small contingent, and I'm encouraging them to pack up early if the air quality gets worse. Don't make a special trip to visit, but we should have some decent views of the moon and later Jupiter. Mojo -- Morris Jones Monrovia, CA http://www.whiteoaks.com Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org Twitter: http://twitter.com/mojo_la

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No sidewalk astronomy tonight in fire smoke
by Morris Jones 28 Aug '09

28 Aug '09

The smoke from the Station fire in La Canada isn't likely to obscure the moon and Jupiter tonight, but it's not looking like a good night to spend two or three hours breathing the fire smoke in the heat. We're going to take a pass on Old Town Pasadena tonight. I'll send an update tomorrow about Monrovia when we've had a chance to check the conditions better. Just as every year now since 2003 (when it was partly true), we've had a big spike in web traffic as the "Mars in August Spectacular" email virus makes its rounds again. Hopefully if you had friends or family who forwarded this now-bogus email to you, you've had a chance to set them straight. :) Best regards, Mojo -- Morris Jones Monrovia, CA http://www.whiteoaks.com Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org Twitter: http://twitter.com/mojo_la

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Perseids and Mars this month
by Jane Houston Jones 10 Aug '09

10 Aug '09

Hi everyone! This is the week of the Perseid meteor shower and the month of the "Mars Spectacular" email hoax and I have something to say about both of them! The Perseids are the topic of my August What's Up Podcast from JPL. Here it is in a couple easy formats; * YouTube is a fast download for a lot of people - my parents like this format to get their JPL podcasts . :-) http://is.gd/2bg2K * Here is the main archive: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup.cfm The Mars email hoax is out there again this year, even though Mars is not big or bright right now - I know some of you have received it because you've asked us about it! I was asked to write a blog for JPL about both the hoax and how you CAN see Mars this month! http://blogs.jpl.nasa.gov/?p=51. I also have updated a Mars Hoax website since 2005, which is full of facts, images and more: http://www.otastro.org/Mars2005/ Finally, welcome to all of our new followers! We've had more people join us after last weeks sidewalk astronomy than usual! Our next sidewalk dates are Pasadena Friday August 28 and Monrovia Saturday August 29th. If you are interested in seeing the Milky Way this summer/fall, our small group usually goes someplace dark on the new moon weekends. Where we go is almost always at least a 150 mile one way drive to a dark site. We'll be happy to tell you how to join us, or to suggest other public friendly (and sometime closer) dark sky star parties. Jane Houston Jones Monrovia, CA Website: www.whiteoaks.com Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org My NASA JPL What's Up podcast: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup.cfm Twitter: http://twitter.com/jhjones http://twitter.com/CassiniSaturn Blog: http://jane.whiteoaks.com/

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