Hi fellow star lovers!
Tonight, there will be an ISS pass visible from the LA region. Step
outside and look towards the NNW. It will only get to 41 degrees above
the NE horizon (90 degrees is overhead), but still, it's fun to wave to
the astronauts, and impress people with your cool forecasting skills.
Plus the moon will be visible low in the western sky, and Saturn and
brighter Jupiter are visible in the southern sky. You can't miss them,
they are both very bright, and beige/butterscotch in color.
Then next Saturday night is our monthly Sidewalk Astronomy night. We
should have several telescopes next week, after everybody being
scattered here and there last month. We'll get underway shortly before
sunset at 7:45 p.m. Myrtle and Lime Street corner in Monrovia - same
place for 15 years!
Finally, the super convenient summer meteor shower, the Perseids, peak
on August 12. he full moon is on Aug 15th, so even a day or two before
the peak on the evening of the 11th, morning of the 12th would be fine,
as there are several days of higher rates on either side of the peak. I
think we will be heading someplace dark, without telescopes, and with
meteor observing chairs and meteor counting tools (eyes, clipboard,
pencil, clock, and coffee) Sunday night the 11th. The NASA What's Up
video team will tell you about the Perseids here:
https://youtu.be/k74kIAHS-ag
I found this nifty moonrise/set - sunrise/set calendar, a good way to
eyeball how many hours between moonset and sunrise. Aug 11/12 will
provide several hours of darkish sky.
https://bit.ly/2MHVsy6
That's all for this month (until something else interesting in the sky
occurs) Jane
ISS PASS Details: Time: Sat Aug 03 9:34 PM, Visible: 2 min, Max Height: 41°, Appears: 18°
above
NNW, Disappears: 41° above NE
-- Jane Houston Jones, retired JPLer Twitter: @jhjones @otastro
http://www.otastro.org/ Astronomy, travel, music, food, cats