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
The sky is worse than it looked a couple hours ago, and from the
satellite and forecast discussion, it doesn't appear to be getting any
better. So we're scrubbing sidewalk astronomy for tonight.
Best regards,
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
We may have a few clouds to dodge, but we're going to give it a try this
evening in Monrovia. Jupiter and Saturn from 8:00 p.m.
Best regards,
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
The forecast isn't perfectly clear, but I have reason to expect that
we'll be able to get some good views of Jupiter and Saturn this evening.
Jane and I will set up in Old Town Pasadena, on Colorado Blvd. probably
between DeLacey and Fair Oaks. (We're opportunistic about parking!)
Sunset will at about 7:35 p.m. Big bright Jupiter will show up in the
east probably 15 minutes after sunset, with Saturn slightly west of
overhead shortly afterward. We'll stay out 'til 10:00 p.m.
The Moon isn't in the evening sky tonight. It'll rise about 2:00 a.m.
If your sky is clear tomorrow morning, look for it any time before noon
in the southwest. It's fun finding the Moon in the daylight!
I'll send an update about Saturday evening tomorrow, after another look
at the weather forecasts. If there's a good chance for clear skies,
we'll set up in Monrovia.
Best regards,
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
One of the interesting things about astronomy as a hobby is that you
can't always observe. Sometimes you're just forced to take a night off.
As recently as this morning, I thought we might have clear enough sky to
show Jupiter, Saturn, and the almost-full Moon this evening in Pasadena.
Since then the forecast has deteriorated, and it's pretty cold and
breezy out. There might be a window of viewing between the clouds, but
it's generally not hospitable out.
The Saturday evening forecast is fully clouded out.
So instead of doing our favorite performace art in Old Town, we'll be
holed up with a movie and a martini at home. :)
Best regards,
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
Last night was a very special evening on our favorite Monrovia street
corner, Myrtle and Lime.
With a forecast for nearly perfect sky conditions, Jane and I brought
out our very best telescopes. The sky delivered, and over 250 folks had
some stunning views of the Moon, Saturn, and Jupiter.
The photo album is available on the OTAstro web site here:
<http://www.otastro.org/2005-04-monrovia/>
Also check the front page of today's Pasadena Star News, below the fold.
There's an article about the Saturn Observation Campaign, and some
pictures from our sidewalk evening of Friday, April 15, on Colorado
Blvd. in Pasadena.
Best regards,
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
Mojo and I had a wonderful night of Saturn, Jupiter and lunar views last
night on Colorado Blvd. And the views tonight in Monrovia from 7 - 10
will be just as good, possibly even better!
First we aimed both telescopes at the moon, while waiting for the sun to
set at 7:30 p.m. and for darkness to envelop the sky. The seven day
waxing moon rose at mid-day and set at midnight. It was a night to see
the great mare, or seas, which are smooth lava filled basins on the
lunar surface. http://www.shallowsky.com/moon/hitchhiker.html I often
get asked by people who look through a telescope at the moon "Where is
the Apollo 11 landing site" in the Sea of Tranquility, or Mare
Tranquillitatis, and this is one of the areas I pointed out last night.
Here is where the landing sites are, for you armchair observers. :-)
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/display.cfm?IM_ID=804 Apollo 11
is marked with a green arrow with "11" on it. Tonight is the eighth day
of the lunar month, and one of my favorite lunar features is best seen
tonight and tomorrow night. It's called the straight wall or straight
fault. It looks like a hairline crack on the moon surface. One side of
the fault is lower than the other, and the wall casts a shadow that
stretches the entire 120 km length of this amazing feature.
Saturn, lord of the rings will be beautiful tonight, and we should see
several of its moons through the telescope. When the air is steady, the
features become easier to see. On this map you can see the Cassini
division, a dark gap between the outer A ring and the middle B ring in
Saturns icy ring system. It takes a moment to see Saturn and take in the
view and the details. Sometimes, with fewer people waiting in line for
views, our guests feel comfortable staring at Saturn for a minute or two
and this is how you can see more ring detail and some of the dark belts
and bright zones on the gas giant planet itself.
http://stars5.netfirms.com/satnori.jpg
Titan, the largest moon of Saturn will be easily visible. Today JPL's
Cassini Spacecraft made its closes flyby of Titan. Next week some
amazing pictures will be available on the Cassini Mission (which is
where I work) website http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm
If Saturn is the jewel of the Solar System, mighty Jupiter is king.
Jupiter rises in the eastern sky at sunset, so we wait until later in
the night to observe it, after we've looked at the moon and Saturn. But
once it rises above trees and city buildings, those of you who take a
look will be in for a real treat tonight. Jupiter's great red spot, a
great anti-cyclonic storm similar to a hurricane on earth rotates onto
the visible planet at about 9 p.m.tonight. So from 9 to 10 p.m. viewers
will be able to see a disturbance in the darker southern belt of the
planet. We'll be sure to point it out. It's not red or bright but at 3
times the size of earth, it's a storm worth watching. All four of the
Gallilean satellites, Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto will be visible
tonight. I like to ponder about Galileo seeing these four moons for the
first time over 400 years ago. Here's a sketch showing Jupiter features
http://www.shallowsky.com/jupfeatures.html
Lastly it was great to see some of you from our list last night, and
hope to see more tonight! We'll be repeating our outings in Pasadena and
Monrovia for the next two weeks. Weather permitting of course. Jane
--
Jane Houston Jones
Monrovia, CA
34.2048N 118.1732W, 637.0 feet
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
Despite the grey sky we seem to have right now, the forecast is
optimistic for clearing tonight. The first quarter Moon will be high
and bright, and very close to Saturn in the sky.
Jane and I will be setting up about 7:00 tonight somewhere on the north
side of Colorado Blvd. between Fair Oaks and Pasadena Ave.
There's also a chance you'll see us in a weekend edition of the Pasadena
Star News. More about that if it happens. We're expecting a
photographer this evening. :)
More news later ...
Best regards,
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
First, Jane and I are going to set up in Monrovia tonight (Saturday) to
give out looks at Saturn and Jupiter. Despite having a thin overcast
most of the day, we're expecting it to clear soon.
Then tomorrow (Sunday) evening, we're going to join Dan Goods, JPL's
Artist in Residence, who will have a display at One Colorado Blvd. in
Old Town Pasadena. This is a nice alleyway between Fair Oaks and De
Lacey. We're going to set up telescopes on Colorado somewhere near the
exhibit.
Cheers,
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
Yes, I know it's Thursday, but by happy circumstance, Jane and I are
planning to be in Old Town Pasadena tonight with telescopes. We should
have good views of Saturn to offer in the early evening, and good views
of Jupiter as well after about 8:00 p.m.
Look for us on Colorado Blvd. in the vicinity of Delacey Street between
7:00 and 9:00 p.m. tonight.
Best regards,
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
