If you were to pick a weekend for all-night stargazing, this weekend
would an excellent choice! From dusk on Saturday all the way to dawn on
Sunday you'll be treated to a starry necklace of planets, all strung out
along the ecliptic plane of our solar system. By midnight or so the
Milky Way will begin to span the sky, too! It will be possible to see
all 8 planets, 10 if you count Ceres and Pluto (from a dark sky, that
is). ;-)
Planetary jewelry is topic of the June what's Up podcast, by the way,
which you can download from the Solar System Exploration website,
complete with additional links.
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup-archive.cfm
Also on the JPL website: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/
and YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=JPLnews#g/u
In addition to the great planet lineup, early risers will also see a
comet, and an asteroid or minor planet, plus you can hunt for Pluto, now
demoted to dwarf planet status, but still very special. To see the comet
- Comet C/2009 R1 (McNaught) scan the NE sky with your binoculars 15 -20
degrees above the horizon - it will be near the brightest star of
Perseus, Alpha Persei or Mirfak - ahhh, that was where the pretty Comet
Holmes was just two years ago! It is on the edge of naked eye
visibility, which is made difficult due to the low horizon + the
nearness of dawn.
Comet McNaught gets 1 degree lower every night after the 15th, until it
is lost from our view as it reaches perihelion, or its closest approach
to the sun on July 2nd. This weekend is the best and nearly the last
time to see it. If you snooze through this one you will definitely lose!
Minor planets? Dwarf planets? You betcha! Ceres and Pluto are to be
found right smack in the thickest part of the summer Milky Way - in the
"steam" rising from teapot-shaped Sagittarius constellation. Pluto
skims the star cluster M24 and Ceres just stepped out of the Lagoon
Nebula, M8. Both the "M's" are naked eye clumps in the Milky Way, and
glorious in binoculars. Early morning just before looking for comet
McNaught will be a fine time to hunt these two down from a dark sky with
a good skychart or star tour guide.
From the greater LA area you can still see the brighter planets and you
can try for the comet. It doesn't rise until 2 am and the best time to
see it will be when it is as high as it gets, just before the the crack
of dawn. You need a pretty decent flat horizon (aka no mountains, hills,
trees, buildings) to your Northeast. It will only be about 20 degrees
above the horizon at its highest. You may see the comet, and some of the
faint tail. You won't see the detail shown in astrophotos - those are
time exposures, and our eyes don't have those settings, unfortunately. :-(
Almost every month your Old Town Sidewalk Astronomers step away from the
sidewalk, drive 150+ miles each way, take big and small telescopes out
to some of Southern California's great dark sky locations. We are happy
to take friends on star tours - but ask first as some of our locations
only have room for a couple extra cars (also no trucks or RV's this
weekend for example) You can enjoy the darker skies all summer long from
many city, state and national parks with nothing more than a pair of
binoculars! Pencil in these dates to check against your calendars -
these are the dark sky weekends. The week before these is also decent.
June 12, July 10, August 7th and September 4+11. September 4th some of
us will be at Glacier Point in Yosemite serving up free public
stargazing. Anyone in the park is welcome to attend and look through the
San Jose Astronomical Association's member telescopes, if you are hiking
in the day, bring layers for the night. Glacier Point has astronomy
every weekend from July 4 - Labor Day, with different astronomy clubs
from Northern California sponsoring each weekend, except for the full
moon. Members bring telescopes, guests get looks all night long, weather
and telescope operator endurance permitting, that is.
That's all for this month, :-)
Sky and Telescope comet charts
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/94277259.html
Charts for Pluto, Neptune, Uranus - scroll to bottom
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/ataglance
Ceres finder chart:
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/94737944.html
--
Jane Houston Jones
Monrovia, CA
My blog about Jupiter impacts: http://jane.whiteoaks.com/
My What's Up podcast June 2010: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup.cfm
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jhjoneshttp://twitter.com/CassiniSaturn
To follow up with Jane's post to the list, we'll be repeating the New
Telescope Owner's clinic this Saturday in Monrovia, as described here:
http://mail.otastro.org/pipermail/otevents/2010-April/000250.html
If you're interested in attending, please drop me a note to reserve a
spot. I try to keep it to one astronomer per new telescope, so we don't
beat each other up. :)
6:00 p.m. Saturday, Library Park, Monrovia
Best regards,
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
Twitter: http://twitter.com/mojo_la
Hi everyone!
We've conducted a couple "Herping Star parties" with the SW Herpetology
Society - both astronomers and herpetologists like new moon nights. :-)
, I've attended one of their San Gabriel Valley chapter meetings at
Eaton Canyon Nature Center at 1750 North Altadena Drive, Pasadena. I see
they have a meeting tonight, and I plan on attending. :-) Might not be
your cup of tea, but it's a fun nature hobby and I am learning a lot
about lizards, tortoises and even snakes!
The SGV Chapter is having a Herp Show-&-Tell for our May 20th meeting -
meeting starts at 7:30 p.m. Bring your favorite, or your most
interesting, herp and tell us what you have observed and learned about
it. Please NO VENOMOUS in person, but photos are OK. Also, we have a few
raffle items for tonight's meeting. Guests are welcome!
BTW, here is my latest herpetology adventure - The Chuckwallas of Amboy
Crater: http://jane.whiteoaks.com/ :-)
Sidewalk astronomy this weekend - weather permitting, and it does look
like weather will permit. :-) Moon, Saturn and Mars will be on view.
Old Town Pasadena 7:30 - 9:30 - someplace on Colorado Blvd between Fair
Oaks and Pasadena Avenues.
Old Town Monrovia - 7:30 - 9:30 - Myrtle and Lime streets. Could be
earlier if someone has signed up for telescope clinic - but I don't
think anyone has....Two of the regulars, including me, will be at a Girl
Scout star party Saturday night, but there will still be telescopes on
our Monrovia corner. :-) That's all for now. Jane
Jane Houston Jones
Monrovia, CA
Latest Blog: Some thoughts about Cancer http://is.gd/c0wVU
What's Up May 2010? Constellation Stories http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup.cfm
What's Up Podcast on YouTube: http://is.gd/c3r1i
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jhjoneshttp://twitter.com/CassiniSaturn
Blog: http://jane.whiteoaks.com/
Last August, I sat in a huge tent in the middle of an Ontario (Canada) field
waiting to give my talk at the annual Starfest star party. The speaker
before me was playing a drum, and singing and telling star stores. The
drummer was Wilfred Buck, a Cree First Nation Elder and Science Educator
with the Manitoba First Nation Education Resource Center.
Wilfred travels the length and breadth of the Canadian province of Manitoba
presenting starlab planetarium shows to nearly 60 First Nation schools with
17,000 students. While he drummed, he sang songs and told star and
constellation stories he gathered first-hand from Cree First Nation Elders.
When it was dark, he took us out into the field and pointed out the
constellations while he told even more star tales. :-)
I was literally star-struck with his presentation and stargazing stories,
and asked him for a copy of it. Over the months, we became friends, and I
asked him if I could write up some of the stories and share them with
others. He said yes, and then then invited me to the annual First Nation
Science Fair in late March (it was awesome!!). Here is how I presented his
stories on my blog last year. http://is.gd/b8Lps
Recently, I asked him if I could do one of my monthly NASA podcasts about
the Cree Constellation stories he shared at the August star partt and he
said yes and reviewed my script. :-)
So with the rich Cree constellation paintings as a base, Wilfred's stories
as the glue, I added some ancient star charts and constellation stories from
other cultures to make May's What's Up podcast. And here it is:
The SSE version has related links - stories of the Night sky, including one
video of Wilfred telling a big bear tale, so click through the links.
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup-view.cfm?WUID=364
Youtube might be easier for some:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=JPLnews#g/u
iTunes:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/nasacast-whats-up-video-podcasts/id252873
558
Please share with whoever you want.
Oh, and this weekend is JPL Open House. On display will be Hubble's
Wide-Field Planetary Camera 2 - the camera that saved Hubble! It was built
at JPL and was in the Spacecraft Assembly Facility being built when I first
visited JPL on a visitor tour over 20 years ago. I'll be in the Solar
System exhibit area this year accessorized as Galileo, thanks to Caroline
and Joan from our sidewalk astronomers club. I'll be holding a Galilean
telescope replica and pointing to missions displays for future missions to
the outer planets. Stop by and see me, and I'll also point you to the
Cassini exhibit where one of our other sidewalk astronomers, Dr. Scott, will
be stationed part of the weekend. :-) Get all the details here:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/
Over and Out! 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 May - Constellation Stories
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup-archive.cfm
Happy Mothers day everyone!
For you early risers, at dawn on Sunday, May 9th--Mother's Day--the
crescent Moon and Jupiter are getting together for a lovely conjunction.
Only 5 degrees will separate the two bright celestial delights as they
hang together in the sunrise-colored sky. Look for Jupiter below the
moon - about the distance of your fist, held up to the sky.
If you don't get up early, enjoy the planetary lineup tonight (or any
night now). Bright Venus is lower and brighter, Saturn and Mars are
higher - Mars is overhead slightly to the west. Wendy took her telescope
out to the desert this week and shared views of Saturn with her
archaeologists, geologist , botanist, biologist and other ologist staff
at their retreat. Kudos to Wendy!!! She is an official Sidewalk
Astronomer now, and I'll have to make her a nametag and let her borrow
my big telescope now. :-) .
Morning chart looking East
http://science.nasa.gov/media/medialibrary/2010/05/06/skymap_morning.gif
Evening chart looking West
http://science.nasa.gov/media/medialibrary/2010/05/06/skymap_evening.gif
Speaking of big telescopes, Mojo and I are all packed for a night of
desert stargazing tonight out past Indio. It will be our first
shirtsleeve weather night. It's short notice, but here are the
directions - you can send us (mojane(a)whiteoaks.com) an email if you are
planning to come out. Bring lots of water, gonna be hot out there!!!
http://www.otastro.org/chuckwalla.html
Next weekend, which is our usual new moon outing is also JPL Open House
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/open-house.cfm, so I am working all
weekend and can't go play with the stars. :-(
Come see me in the solar system exhibit. I will be cross dressing (as
Galileo) with a replica of his telescope. Something like this
http://photo.whiteoaks.com/2010-03-03-LPSC/slides/IMG_5668.html, but
nicer thanks to my sidewalk buddy Caroline, who is helping with some
17th century accessories :-)
--
Jane Houston Jones
Monrovia, CA
Website: www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
What's Up March 2010? Saturn & 21Lutetia! http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup.cfm
What's Up Podcast on YouTube: http://bit.ly/bBUANa
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jhjoneshttp://twitter.com/CassiniSaturn
Blog: http://jane.whiteoaks.com/
We often get questions from fans who have a telescope in the closet and
aren't sure how to use it. We had good luck in San Francisco offering a
"New Telescope Owner's Clinic" before their monthly city star party.
I'd like to do that in Monrovia this Saturday.
The best time to get acquainted with your telescope is during the day.
We can help set it up, align the finder, and collimate a dobsonian. We
can help you learn how to find objects, choose an eyepiece, and practice
observing things before it actually gets dark.
What we can't do is align a computerized telescope based on alignment
with bright stars.
If you are interested in doing this, please send me a reply to this
email, and plan to join me in Library Park at Myrtle and Lime at 6:00 on
Saturday. Bring your telescope and any supplies, along with an owner's
manual if you have one. We'll be able to observe the moon even during
the daylight.
I'll bring a tool box and maybe a solar telescope.
If I don't hear from you, I won't make plans to be there 'til about sunset.
Best regards,
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
Twitter: http://twitter.com/mojo_la
Weather looks good for sidewalk astronomy this weekend. We'll have a
waxing gibbous moon, Saturn, and possibly a glimpse of Venus and Mars.
We plan to be in Old Town Pasadena this evening (Friday), and Old Town
Monrovia Saturday evening, 7:30 'til 9:30 p.m.
In Pasadena, look for telescopes on Colorado Blvd., on the north side of
the street, somewhere in the two-block stretch from Fair Oaks to
Pasadena Ave.
In Monrovia, we'll be on the corner of Myrtle and Lime, at Library Park.
Saturn should be a treat, with the rings barely four degrees open right now.
Venus is the brightest star in the west, following the sun into the
horizon. It's in a gibbous phase right now, on the far side of the sun
from earth. It will be fun to watch later in the year as it swings
towards earth and changes to crescent phase.
Mars continues moving further away from earth. While it's high in the
sky, we don't expect to see more than a pumpkin-colored dot at this point.
If you're up before dawn, as I usually am, look for bright Jupiter in
the east, having risen just an hour or so before the sun.
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
Twitter: http://twitter.com/mojo_la
Hi everyone, we're still up on cloud nine after last weekend's awesome
star party at Mojave National Preserve! It was so great to see many of
you over the weekend. There were at least 4 families from our astronomy
list who joined us, in addition to the 4 families worth of astronomers.
There were over 50 people there, and another 15 on Friday night for our
first night impromptu star party. Many staff and friends of the Mojave
National Preserve. http://www.preservethemojave.org/index.php
Here is a set of pictures I took. Each of us took lots of pictures on
the hikes, and Mojo has some spectacular panoramas that will make their
way to a blog soon. I'm busy writing up a story about the Chuckwalla
lizards of Amboy Cratrer and other tales myself. One park visit, so much
to learn and share!
http://photo.whiteoaks.com/2010-04-11-mojavejane/index.html.
We're heading to our no-frills observing site off the I-10 Red Cloud
Road between Chiriaco Summit and Desert Center in a few hours. But first
we'll head up into Joshua Tree National Park from the south to check out
the Colorado Desert wildflowers, and to hug one of our very favorite
national parks. This week is National Park Week (in addition to Earth
Week and National Astronomy Week) But this means there is free
admission to every one of the nations National Parks April 17-25th.
http://www.nationalparks.org/explore/?fa=national-park-week I hope you
make it to one of our local parks this week! Find your closest ones on
this link - there are 4 national parks within 100 miles of my zip code,
and we're heading to one of them!
Next weekend we'll be out on the sidewalks once again. We'll be in
Pasadena Friday night and Monrovia Saturday night to share moon, Venus,
Saturn and Mars (and maybe Mercury) with all of you who stop by! See you
under the stars!!
Jane
--
Jane Houston Jones
Monrovia, CA
Website: www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
What's Up March 2010? Saturn & 21Lutetia! http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup.cfm
What's Up Podcast on YouTube: http://bit.ly/bBUANa
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jhjoneshttp://twitter.com/CassiniSaturn
Blog: http://jane.whiteoaks.com/
What's Up for April? How and when to view the Space Station and more!
JPL: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup.cfm
YouTube http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=JPLnews#p/u/0/TfMiKZi0ba4
A lot of you know how to check for local ISS passes, or go out and watch the
passes, but many don't know when and where to look, or what to expect you
will see. This month's podcast explains how and what you will see.
I hope you share this podcast with your friends, family and networks who may
be unsure how to look, where to look, and when to look.
It's a good-time topic this month, especially because there is a shuttle
about to dock and then undock from the ISS. That means both the shuttle and
station can be seen together in the sky by some lucky people, maybe you! :-)
Speaking of this week, there is a very nice and high morning ISS pass
tomorrow morning here in the LA area, about 5:25 with a bonus - fainter
STS-131 passes nearby 4 minutes earlier. I attached those two charts (using
the familiar Heavens Above website) for us locals. Others can follow the
directions and find out when and where. :-)
Jane
PS: Final reminder about Mohave turtles and star party this weekend, weather
permitting is here: http://www.preservethemojave.org/events.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
What's Up For April - The International Space Station!
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup-archive.cfm