First quarter Moon this weekend!
There might be a chance for some Jupiter observing shortly after sunset
if we find a spot with a good southwest horizon, but mostly it's a Moon
weekend. Jupiter will be leaving the early evening skies quickly now.
Tonight (Friday August 12):
Old Town Pasadena, Colorado Blvd. near Delacey, 7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Tomorrow (Saturday August 13):
Old Town Monrovia, Myrtle & Lime, 7:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.
Sunset this evening is a 7:42 p.m. We can always see the Moon before
sunset, but it looks better after. :)
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
Hello astro people
I have quite an interesting job doing outreach for the Cassini
Mission, and I get the most interesting things in the mail. A few
weeks ago I received a music score and recording of a middle-school
band composition inspired by the Cassini mission to Saturn, called
"Cassini's Rings". I sent it out to everyone here at Cassini, and
they just went nuts over it.
One of my co-workers plays in the La Canada Community Band - he plays
the euphonium and sits in front of the tubas, but I digress. He asked
the composer for permission to premier it here on the west coast and
the community band is doing just that this weekend. I'll be happy to
pass on the conductors contact info once school is back in session
for any of you who might be interested in sharing it with your own
school bands. :-)
So here's the scoop:
Michael Oare, Director of Bands at Great Bridge Middle School in
Chesapeake, Virginia was inspired by the Cassini Mission to Saturn.
He created a composition for middle school band featuring a melody
based on the 7 major rings of Saturn: D, C, B (Bb), A, F, G and E .
Michael writes "The spacecraft studies Saturn, its moons, and its
famous rings. The major rings of Saturn are named, in order of their
discovery, for the first seven letters of the alphabet. The letters
(notes) D, C, B (Bb), A, F, G and E form the order of the rings based
on their respective distance from the planet, closest to farthest.
The melodic material in Cassini's Rings is based on this seven-tone
row."
My co-worker (and fellow amateur astronomer) Steve Edberg from JPL
arranged with the composer, Michael Oare, and conductor Sue Hamre of
the La Canada Community Band to present this piece on Sunday August
14th at La Canada's Memorial Park.
Where: Memorial Park is on the north side of Foothill in La Canada
two traffic signals west of Angeles Crest Highway
When: Sunday August 14th. The concert including this piece begins
at 5:00 p.m. This concert is part of the concert series held at
Memorial Park every summer Sunday.
What to bring: chairs or blanket and a picnic dinner.
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
Cassini Saturn Observation Campaign
http://soc.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm
It's time again for the annual August meteor shower, the Perseids. Jane
has written some good tips for observing the shower, and I've included
them on the Old Town Astronomers front page -- but the best rendition is
here on the San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers page:
<http://sfsidewalkastronomers.org/newsarticles/perseids>
Best regards,
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
KPCC has an audio stream of our astronomer-on-the-street interview for
their program "Past Sunset."
Go to the Past Sunset web page,
<http://www.scpr.org/programs/pastsunset/> and scroll down for the
"Sidewalk Astronomers" story.
It might have been the best three minutes of the show. In any event,
it's fairly short. :)
Best regards,
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
Last week on Colorado Blvd. while showing Jupiter and the Moon, we were
visited by a reporter from KPCC, the public radio station at 89.3 FM.
She was preparing a story for KPCC's new evening program "Past Sunset"
with David Cruz. Our story is scheduled to air tonight.
The program runs from 7-9 p.m., and our segment should be heard a little
after 8:30. It is a live show, so that could be unpredictable.
We'll be hearing it for the first time tonight, so we don't know what to
expect either. If some of you visited the telescope last Friday the
15th, you might hear yourself!
Today's web page for the program includes a plug for the story:
<http://www.scpr.org/programs/pastsunset/>
Best regards,
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
Hello stargazers,
Last weekend we had fabulous dark skies and wonderful weather for the
Glacier Point star party in Yosemite National Park with the San
Francisco Amateur Astronomers. We were joined by a writer and
photographer from the L.A. Times "Outdoor" section, so watch for a
feature article appearing there sometime soon. Our website has a little
photo album from the weekend here:
<http://www.otastro.org/2005-07-sfaa-yosemite/>
We plan to bring telescopes out as usual Friday night, and set up as
close to the Barnes and Noble bookstore on Colorado Blvd as parking
spaces permit. At midnight, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"
goes on sale. :-) So there will be lots of folks out late, we
suspect, and the first quarter Moon will be high overhead. If you'd like
to join us and hand out Moon cards, we'd love some company. It's a bit
tight for additional telescopes on the Colorado Blvd. sidewalk -- two is
plenty.
Also if you're interested in meeting John Dobson, he'll be on the roof
of the parking lot at the Barnes & Noble in Burbank Friday evening from
7:30 p.m. 'til midnight. <http://sidewalkastronomers.us/schedule/?id=1692>
There are three local stargazing events this Saturday, and we'll be out
of town on Saturday night anyway. If any of you want to bring your own
telescopes to Library Park, Monrovia on Saturday night, we'll leave it
on our schedule. Otherwise we'll cancel our local event and encourage
people to attend these events instead:
Three local events Saturday July 16
Eaton Canyon Nature Center 2005 Twilight Program 7:30 - 9:30 p.m.
($3.00 donation requested) http://www.ecnca.org/Cassini_Flier.htm
Colorado Street Bridge Party
http://www.pasadenaheritage.org/bridgeparty.html ($15.00 at the gate )
Telescopes in Education will be there in the park for this event. Read
down to the "entertainment" section of the announcement for more
information.
Griffith Park monthly star party 2- 10 p.m.(free)
Griffith Observatory Satellite in NE corner of Griffith Park.
http://www.griffithobs.org/Special.html
Best regards,
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
Jane and I are going to give it a try this evening in Old Town Pasadena,
though we'll probably have some interruptions from clouds.
The NWS forecasters are hedging their bet on tonight's forecast by
calling it "partly cloudy." We're catching the southern tail of a cold
front that may help clear out the marine layer gloom, but bring some
higher clouds of its own.
We'll have a large gibbous Moon high in the sky early, and we should be
able to show it in the telescope well before the sun sets at 8:06 p.m.
A little after sunset we'll be able to show bright Jupiter high in the
south.
For the next several weeks, the sky will have two very bright star-like
objects in the sky: Venus low in the west shortly after sunset, and
Jupiter high in the south. Venus is slightly brighter, but it may not
seem so against the twilight sunset glow.
Right now, Saturday evening looks like a carbon copy of Friday. We'll
give the sky another try in Monrovia.
Details:
Friday, June 17, 7:00 p.m. 'til 10:00 p.m., Old Town Pasadena, Colorado
Blvd. near Delacey (somewhere between Fair Oaks and Pasadena Ave.) on
the north side of Colorado.
Saturday, June 18, 7:00 p.m. 'til 9:30 p.m., Old Town Monrovia, Library
Park at the corner of Myrtle and Lime.
Best regards,
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
Jane and I are back from our week-long trek to the annual Grand Canyon
Star Party. It was a great week full of canyon and sky!
I've put a little photo album together on the OTAstro web site here:
<http://www.otastro.org/2005-06-GrandCanyon/>
We're planning some Moon and Jupiter viewing this coming weekend, if the
June Gloom permits. I'll send a weather update tomorrow evening.
Best regards,
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
I meant to say this weekend is our last scheduled excursion *in May* --
we have plans for lots more sidewalk astronomy. :)
Also of note -- this weekend is the annual Open House at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada. It's definitely worth the trip, but
be aware that the event draws enormous crowds, so go early if you're
going! The really best time is early Sunday morning.
You should also be aware that JPL is a huge place and built into a
hillside. Bring your comfiest walking shoes, lots of water, and be
ready to climb a few hills.
More information is available at JPL's web site, <http://www.jpl.nasa.gov>.
Best regards,
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
It's shaping up to be a good weekend for sidewalk astronomy. Jane and I
will be in Old Town Pasadena tonight, and Old Town Monrovia tomorrow night.
May is the last month this year for good Saturn observations, and this
weekend is the last scheduled sidewalk excursion for the Old Town
Astronomers. This is your last chance for a good look at Saturn for a
while. Every evening Saturn appears a bit lower in the west as the
Earth swings around the Sun in its orbit. In a couple months we'll
begin seeing Saturn again just before dawn, and it will spend several
months visible in the early morning sky -- not a time when we're on a
sidewalk with telescopes. :)
Luckily the Earth keeps revolving around the Sun, and we'll catch up to
Saturn again early in 2006. Saturn requires about 30 years to orbit the
Sun, so it won't have moved a whole lot in the year we take for our orbit.
That's not the end of the planets for 2005 though! Jupiter will
continue putting on a great show for the next few months in the early
evening. Tonight Jupiter's Great Red Spot may be visible in the early
part of the evening. Seeing the giant storm is difficult, because the
coloring is very subtle. But if the atmospheric turbulence ("seeing")
is still, you just might see the eye-shaped disturbance.
Meanwhile Venus is slowly climbing higher in the evening sky, and for
the rest of the year it will be the brilliant evening star in the west
after sunset. Next month the sky will have two very bright "stars,"
Venus in the west, and Jupiter high in the southeast.
The six-day-old crescent Moon will be putting on a great show all
weekend. If you look at the Moon tonight, the brightest star nearby is
actually the planet Saturn. Notice on Saturday night how far the Moon
has moved away from Saturn, and bingo, you just noticed the Moon's orbit
around the Earth. :)
Later this year, shortly after Halloween, we'll be looking forward to
catching up with Mars, as the Earth does every 27-months. We'll be
planning some special viewing times for that special occasion.
Best regards,
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
