OTEvents July 2009

otevents@otastro.org

2 participants
3 discussions

Apollo 11 + 40 years web product, view the moon too!

by Jones, Jane H (1862)

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

13 years, 10 months

Harry Potter astronomy, dark sky stargazing coming up

by Jane Houston Jones

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/jhjones http://twitter.com/CassiniSaturn Blog: http://jane.whiteoaks.com/

13 years, 10 months

What's Up for July? ISS from the city, Milky Way away from city lights

by Jones, Jane H

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

13 years, 10 months

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OTEvents July 2009