Hi everyone, there is a lot of coverage about the 40th anniversary of the
Apollo 11 landing (July 20th) in the press, TV and online.
The JFK Presidential Library has a remarkable site that is streaming
realtime coverage of Apollo 11 plus 40 years. They have a great website
(supposedly idealized for Firefox but I¹ve got it up on Safari and IE) that
has a graphic showing what the spacecraft are doing and the audio of
air-to-ground including the commentary. There is a background audio track
(sort of rumbling) but that can be turned off. It does require an up to date
flash player - I had to download it myself.
It's pretty cool and it¹s going to be running for the next week (until Neil,
Buzz and Mike splash down). http://wechoosethemoon.com/
The most frequent question we get out on the sidewalk when aiming at the
moon is "Can I see the Apollo 11 landing site area" or "can I see the flag"
and "can I see the footprints" (Answers: yes, no, no)
You can take a look at the moon and see the general area where Apollo 11
landed. Even with the unaided eye, you can make out the Sea of Tranquility,
and through binoculars, see the edge of the sea.
The landing site is on the south-western edge of Mare Tranquillitatis, the
Sea of Tranquility. Best seen at or after first quarter (which is July 28th)
until the week after full moon. On the 27th this area is right on the
terminator! Here is a map:
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/gallery/Moon_Landings.jpg
Our sidewalk astronomy dates this month are July 31 Pasadena and August 1
Monrovia. We'll be sure to point this area out to you, and I'll even bring
some lunar landing site moon maps to hand out both nights- while supplies
last, that is!
Keep looking up! 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
What's Up for July: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup-archive.cfm
Hi astronomy enthusiasts, in honor of the new Harry Potter movie coming
out next week some of your intrepid Old Town Sidewalk Astronomers got
together and compiled "The Harry Potter Objects" - a literary
astronomical project connecting characters in . K. Rowling's books to
their astronomical counterparts.
We read the books and made a list of the astronomy names, like Sirius
Black and Draco Malfoy. Then we researched both the astronomical
objects and the Potter characters. Next we took our telescopes,
binoculars, star charts and green laser pointers out of the city to our
dark sky observing spots over many months and located the objects. It
was a ton of fun and finally we wrote it up for you to enjoy! Here it
is: http://tr.im/HPsky
Also, we're inviting you to join us at a dark sky outing next weekend.
On July 17th and 18th some of us are taking our telescopes to the Warner
Springs Ranch. http://www.warnersprings.com/ Each month the ranch
offers a free star party to their guests and local folks. They usually
just have one or two astronomers ,and one of them is a colleague of mine
at JPL. she thought we might like to try it out. It is a one third
shorter drive than to our usual desert spots.You don't have to stay at
the ranch to stargaze with us, but we are staying there for the Saturday
night public star party (a few of us will be there Friday night also).
There are camping areas neaby - Oak Knoll Campground is about 15 miles
away on Palomar Mountain, I am told. http://www.warnersprings.com/
Astronomy is weather permitting, of course.
The 4 of us who worked on the Harry Potter Observing Project will all be
there Saturday night, and we'll be happy to point out the summer objects
from the project list. :-) The Milky Way, subject of my July 2009
Whats Up podcast will be beautiful from Warner Springs. Hope to see
some of you there! Email me if you have questions, but contact the ranch
for logistics and/or reservations. Jane
--
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/jhjoneshttp://twitter.com/CassiniSaturn
Blog: http://jane.whiteoaks.com/
Hi astronomy enthusiasts! Mojo and I have been away for a couple weeks on a
family cruise to Alaska, but we are home and now our eyes are once again
turned upwards to enjoy the local night sky. You can still view Saturn lower
in the west and look for Jupiter rising in the east!
For SoCal residents there are some pretty good evening passes of the
International Space Station this week. Look in the Southwest (Saturn will be
bright and low in the SW too) and the ISS will be traveling from the SW to
the NE less than halfway to the horizon. Go to the Heavens Above web page
and click on the date of the pass if you are interested more detail. You may
see a small satellite following the ISS - that is the Progress Resupply
Vehicle! Here's the local Heaven's Above page: http://is.gd/1qaTZ
The good ISS passes are at:
7/7 9:35 P.M. (ISS passes near Saturn W to E)
7/8 8:24 P.M. (the best south to north)
7/9 8:49 P.M. (look closer to the horizon below Saturn)
What else is up? The Milky Way is beautiful, and well worth a trip away from
city lights - more on an outing we're planning soon. The Milky Way is the
subject of my monthly podcast too. You can view it here in many formats:
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup-archive.cfm
And here http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/podcasting/whatsup_index.html
And here on Youtube with other JPL videos here:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=JPLnews&view=videos
That's all for now!
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
Saturnobs http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/Education/saturnobservation/
What's Up June: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/podcasting/whatsup_index.html
