If you step outside tonight you'll see a pretty first quarter moon.
We'd love to be out with telescopes, but with all the wind damage in
both Pasadena and Monrovia, we're cancelling both events this weekend.
Our corner in Monrovia - the corner of Myrtle and Lime Streets - is
strewn with the wreckage of huge fallen trees and is cordoned off with
yellow tape. The big Deodar known as the "Christmas" Tree in Library
Park was also a victim of the Santa Annas, uprooted, it's lying in a big
mess of branches, lights, and the big star on top is bear the fountain.
A huge tree gone.
Now back to the moon. Take a look at the distance between the moon and
Jupiter tonight. Look again tomorrow night. And look again on Sunday
night. YOu'll see the moon appears closer to Jupiter every night! On
December 5th and 6th the moon will be very near Jupiter. I wrote a
little feature about it with some nice links.
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup-view.cfm?WUID=1004
Have a good and safe weekend. Jane
--
Jane Houston Jones
Monrovia, CA
What's Up Podcast-November 2011
Mars launch, Planetary magnetospheres
NASA podcast: http://is.gd/bSXeAl
Youtube site: http://is.gd/kPUtSx
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jhjones /CassiniSaturn /otastro
My Blog: http://jane.whiteoaks.com/
Today's rain doesn't appear to be letting up tonight for our monthly
sidewalk astronomy in Old town Pasadena, and the forecast for Saturday
night has worsened. We'll make that call tomorrow, but I wouldn't plan
an excursion for cloudy night moon and planet viewing. We'll post an
announcement if we're going our tomorrow night. Leaning towards
weathered out conditins/cancellation.
So it's a weekend for armchair astronomy! Mojo and I have made weekend
treks to two dark sky locations on the two past weekends.
Mojo brings our Astro-Physics Traveler - a spectacular small telescope
well suited to astrophotography out to the desert when we can get away,
and are not doing National Park public viewing (which is most of the
time). Read his last two weekend stories, and gaze at his pretty images
here: http://mojo.whiteoaks.com/
I picked a few interesting visual targets to write about, and I hauled
my huge 17.5 inch reflector out to the desert the last two weekends. I
selected a few targets that NASA telescopes or astronomers have also
studied to look at. http://jane.whiteoaks.com/
My monthly What's Up video is all about the upcoming Nov 25 launch of
the Mars Science Laboratory, also known as the Curiosity rover, plus
something about planetary magnetospheres. Here's the JPL Youtube link
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=JPLnews#grid/uploads
There's also a good short video about the science planned for Tuesday's
close flyby of Asteroid YU55 on that Youtube page, right above my
video. Nasa will use Earth as a spacecraft to image this asteroid as it
whizzes by, and will use the huge radio antennae out in the Mojave
Desert at Goldstone to measure this thing. Usually we have to fly "to"
the object to study it. This time the object comes "to" us - close
enough to Earth to use our ground based telescopes, but far enough away
not to worry about it any danger.
Amateur astronomers wonder if YU55 can be seen in backyard telescopes.
If your backyard is really dark, and you know exactly where to look, and
you have charts to show where it will be, you might see it, and those
lucky observers will see it move in the eyepiece view. This
writer/amateur astronomer from Duluth MN has some excellent charts and a
good explanation.
http://astrobob.areavoices.com/2011/11/02/users-guide-to-monday-nights-aste…
Jane (and the Old Town Sidewalk Astronomers)
--
Jane Houston Jones
Monrovia, CA
What's Up Podcast-November 2011
Mars launch, Planetary magnetospheres
NASA podcast: http://is.gd/bSXeAl
Youtube site: http://is.gd/kPUtSx
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jhjones /CassiniSaturn /otastro
My Blog: http://jane.whiteoaks.com/
Stephen Coleman was at our InOMN event last night with a camera and
tripod. He took some great natural-light shots of the astronomers,
telescopes, and accidental astronomers getting looks at the moon.
http://photo.whiteoaks.com/2011-10-08-sidewalk-inomn/
We had about 150 visitors last night in old town Monrovia.
Stephen, thanks so much for the great shots!
Best regards,
Mojo
--
Morris Jones, Monrovia, CA
http://whiteoaks.com
Hi all, tonight is "International Observe the Moon Night"
http://observethemoonnight.org/
The moon will be our only bright target this evening, but it should be a
beautiful night for it.
We plan to set up in Old Town Monrovia tonight at about sunset 6:30, and
show the moon 'til 8:30 or 9 or so. We'll be at our usual spot at Myrtle
& Lime in Library Park.
Jupiter is nearing opposition, but doesn't reach opposition until
October 29. It should be a great target for next month's sidewalk weekend.
Best regards,
Mojo
--
Morris Jones, Monrovia, CA
http://whiteoaks.com
One of the three civilian groups from our email list to show up at the
Mojave event. :-)
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Thank you
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2011 13:04:15 -0700 (PDT)
From: Zeynep Yeldan <zeynep_yeldan(a)yahoo.com>
Reply-To: Zeynep Yeldan <zeynep_yeldan(a)yahoo.com>
To: jane(a)whiteoaks.com <jane(a)whiteoaks.com>
Hi Jane,
We had a great weekend owing to all of you. Thank you so much. Hopefully
we'll be able to make it to the next stargazing event too. There's too
much I wouldn't want to miss again.
Best,
Z.
If I weren't heading to the Mojave National Preserve tomorrow for our
annual fall star party there, I'd head over to the Altadena Library to
hear Don Nicholson's free talk at 2:30 p.m.
His talk is titled " Mount Wilson astronomers I have known; some of whom
have known me". At 90 years old, Don has known a LOT of astronomers who
worked at Mt. Wilson. The son of Dr. Seth B. Nicholson of the Mount
Wilson Observatory, he has had a lifelong association with that
Observatory. His present interests are the history of astronomy in the
20th century and the encouragement of public interest and participation
in astronomy.
Don spent much of his youth at the Observatory and met many of the
legendary figures who worked there. He graduated from Pomona College
with a major in physics and received a Masters Degree in meteorology
from Caltech. After serving in the U.S. Army Air Force, he worked for
Technicolor, Northrop, and The Aerospace Corporation, where he led the
Optical Systems Department. Since retiring, he has been active in public
outreach for astronomical organizations.
The Altadena Public Library is located at 600 E. Mariposa Street in
Altadena, two stop signs west of Lake Avenue at the corner of Mariposa
and Santa Rosa Avenue ("Christmas Tree Lane"). Exit the 210 freeway at
Lake Avenue in Pasadena and go about 2.5 miles north to Mariposa Street
in Altadena. Turn left on Mariposa, go to the second stop sign, turn
left on Santa Rosa, and turn into the parking lot at the first driveway
on your right. The lecture is in the library's Community Room.
This talk is sponsored by the Mount Wilson Institute. For more
information, including how to become a member of Friends of Mount Wilson
Observatory (FOMWO), see the Observatory's website www.mtwilson.edu or
contact lecture coordinator Bob Eklund, beklund(a)sprynet.com, (310)
216-5947.
--
Jane Houston Jones
Monrovia, CA
What's Up Podcast-Sept:Moon Past&Present:
Apollo landing sites to Grail launch
NASA podcast: http://is.gd/bSXeAl
Youtube site: http://is.gd/kPUtSx
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jhjones /CassiniSaturn /otastro
My Blogs about Moon views,meteors,launches: http://jane.whiteoaks.com/
We had plans to set up telescopes for some lunar observing tonight in
Monrovia, but they've been dashed by cloudy skies and a chance of
thundershowers. Hopefully next month!
Meanwhile we'll be hoping for clear skies and calm winds for September
24th dark sky observing in Mojave National Preserve. We'd love to have
you visit out from under the L.A. light dome. Details are here:
http://preservethemojave.org/
Best regards,
Mojo
--
Morris Jones, Monrovia, CA
http://whiteoaks.com
Hi everyone,
Mojo and I will make an impromptu, unscheduled sidewalk astronomy foray
tomorrow night September 3rd at Myrtle and Lime Streets 7:30 – 9:30 p.m.
This month the first quarter moon phase falls on Sunday the 4th, and so
both flanking weekends offer some decent mooning —a slender crescent
this weekend, and a big fat waxing gibbous phase next weekend. I'll be
working at Kennedy Space Center next week for the launch of GRAIL – twin
washing machine-sized spacecraft heading to our moon. They'll fly in
formation very close to the moon's surface and measure the moon's
gravity. And I'll be at a star party at Brevard Community College
Observatory in Cocoa, FL next Friday night showing Grail's destination
with the local astronomy club! :–)
My monthly video is all about GRAIL and observing the moon. Next week,
the days surrounding the September 8th launch will perfect nights to
look at the moon and see where all 6 Apollo missions landed! Here's the
link http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup-view.cfm?WUID=944 and
there is a great map of the landing sights on that page at the bottom.
We'll hand out some charts on the sidewalk both weekends, too.
Dark sky enthusiasts may want to join us in Mojave National Preserve on
September 24th. The Milky Way is high overhead, spanning the sky from
horizon to horizon. It's definitely worth the drive! The Mojave National
Preserve Conservancy website still shows our spring stargazing info
http://preservethemojave.org/ but just change the date to September
24th. Directions and RSVP contact are on the page, and they have not
changed. There is limited room for RV's so I'd definitely call if you
are bringing a large RV – there is plently of room for tents, but
everyone should RSVP. You only need to tell me your coming if you bring
telescopes, and want to share the cement pad. There's room for about 6
–8 telescopes Camping is free, courtesy of the MNPC, but you might want
to consider joining the conservancy and helping protect this magnificent
preserve. Last weekend we were at Yosemite's Glacier Point public star
party and we shared milky way views (plus a comet, supernova and more)
with 150 or so park visitors. A different astronomy club is up there at
Glacier Point right now and tomorrow night, too, in case you are heading
that way.
What else? I received a lot of questions about the August Perseids from
the media and enthusiasts alike. The full moon washed out the few
meteors we could possibly see from the city, and the same will happen
next year. So as a preemptive strike, I wrote up some tips in an article
called Post-Perseid depression? More showers are on the
way!http://jane.whiteoaks.com/2011/08/31/post-perseid-depression-more-showe…
I'm close to hitting the send button on a moon observing article, too.
It will appear as the top feature on my blog if I get it done this weekend.
Mojo and I both wrote our adventures at Kennedy Space Center for the
launch of Jupiter-bound Juno - apologies if I already shared that one.
http://mojo.whiteoaks.com/2011/08/11/the-nasa-tweetup-to-launch-juno/http://jane.whiteoaks.com/2011/08/14/mission-juno-launch-august-5-2011/
Until next month, over and out!
--
Jane Houston Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://jane.whiteoaks.com/http://twitter.com/jhjones
What's Up For August? Jupiter and Juno
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup-archive.cfm
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=JPLnews
