Hi everyone! This is the week of the Perseid meteor shower and the month of the "Mars Spectacular" email hoax and I have something to say about both of them! The Perseids are the topic of my August What's Up Podcast from JPL. Here it is in a couple easy formats; * YouTube is a fast download for a lot of people - my parents like this format to get their JPL podcasts . :-) http://is.gd/2bg2K * Here is the main archive: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup.cfm The Mars email hoax is out there again this year, even though Mars is not big or bright right now - I know some of you have received it because you've asked us about it! I was asked to write a blog for JPL about both the hoax and how you CAN see Mars this month! http://blogs.jpl.nasa.gov/?p=51. I also have updated a Mars Hoax website since 2005, which is full of facts, images and more: http://www.otastro.org/Mars2005/ Finally, welcome to all of our new followers! We've had more people join us after last weeks sidewalk astronomy than usual! Our next sidewalk dates are Pasadena Friday August 28 and Monrovia Saturday August 29th. If you are interested in seeing the Milky Way this summer/fall, our small group usually goes someplace dark on the new moon weekends. Where we go is almost always at least a 150 mile one way drive to a dark site. We'll be happy to tell you how to join us, or to suggest other public friendly (and sometime closer) dark sky star parties. Jane Houston Jones Monrovia, CA Website: www.whiteoaks.com Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org My NASA JPL What's Up podcast: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup.cfm Twitter: http://twitter.com/jhjones http://twitter.com/CassiniSaturn Blog: http://jane.whiteoaks.com/