Tonight's weather forecast: Mostly cloudy. Chance of rain. Probability
of measurable precipitation 30 percent. Southeast wind 5 mph. Low 51.
Tonight's Clear Sky Clock shows all white - and that means 90% cloud
cover: http://cleardarksky.com/c/MnrviaCAkey.html
Luckily we had two great sidewalk astronomy nights this week. On
Tuesday night LA Sidewalk Astronomer Donna Smith and I set up two
homemade reflector telescopes in front of the Glendale Library. We
showed a pretty crescent moon and Saturn to nearly 200 people who came
to the library either to hear John Dobson's talk or who were at the
library.. Last night Mojo and I set up telescopes on Colorado Blvd in
Pasadena, and in-between the passing clouds we managed to have some
decent moon views to show to the over 200 passersby. By 9 p.m. the moon
was totally obscured by cloud, so we left early, and it looks like
tonight will be worse, weatherwise.
Our next outings, both in Monrovia
Possible: Saturday Feb 3. The moon will be one day past full, and won't
rise until 7 p.m. so if we do some viewing it will be from about 7:30 -
10 p.m.
Confirmed: February 10 - 76-10 p.m. Special Saturn viewing night from
about 7:30 p.m.
Jane
--
Jane Houston Jones
Monrovia, CA
34.2048N 118.1732W, 637.0 feet
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
Sorry for the late notice - I thought I sent this first event notice
a couple weeks ago, but I didn't. This first event is tonight, and
I'll be setting up my own homemade 10-inch Dobsonian reflector
http://photo.whiteoaks.com/2006-12-02-dobson/slides/IMG_3850.html at
the library in Glendale - I made the telescope in John Dobson's
telescope making class in 1988. :-) Near the the bottom of this
email are our own sidewalk events in January and February. :-)
Tonight: Jan 23 - John Dobson will be doing an auditorium and
parking lot talk - demo of several of his telescopes at the Glendale
Public Library (GPL) Tuesday Jan. 23rd, 7 p.m. GPL is on the corner
of Louise and Harvard near Colorado and Brand essentially downtown
Glendale. Rain date is Jan 30.
Here is the library link:
http://library.ci.glendale.ca.us/authors_artists_friends.asp#dobson
A few other local Dobson events are below. If you want more info
about John's schedule, here is the link: www.sidewalkastronomers.us -
click on schedule.
Jan. 25 - The Sidewalk Astronomers will be at Nightengale Middle
School at 3311 N.
Figeroa in Los Angeles on the evening of Jan 25th for Science Night.
Jan 26 - Join the Sidewalk Astronomers at Samuel's Florist on the
evening of Jan 26
from 6 pm unitl 9 pm. 921 W. Olive Ave., Burbank, CA for more information
call 818-846-1722.
Jan 27 - John will be at the Griffith Park Star Party.
http://www.griffithobs.org/ Star Parties are listed under the
"Public Programs" area.
http://www.griffithobservatory.org/pstarparties.html The Griffith
website states: Those wishing to attend public star parties held at
the Observatory will need to secure a timed entry and shuttle
reservation for the date and time of the event. To make a
reservation, please click here.
Jan 28-29 John is giving talks at the Vedanta Center in Hollywood,
but I don't have any additional info at this time. If you are
interested in this, contact Donna at dsmith1055(a)earthlink.net
Here are the next few Old Town Sidewalk Astronomy events:
Jan 26 - Old Town Pasadena 6-9 p.m. (we set up on Colorado Blvd
between Fair Oaks and Pasadena Avenues, depending on parking)
Jan 27 - Old Town Monrovia - Library Park, Myrtle and Lime Streets,
Monrovia 5-9 p.m.
Feb 2&3 possible near-full-moon sidewalk nights. Saturn is close to
the moon Friday night, close to Regulus Saturday night.
Feb 6 - if you want to bring a telescope to school, let us know.
We'll be doing our 4th annual event at a Monrovia middle school on
Tuesday Feb 6th. This is the school's PTA Founders Day, and several
hundred students, parents and staff will have a look through the
telescopes when they are not indoors at the honors program.
Telescope viewing begins at 5:45 p.m. and the event will be over by
7:30 or so. Saturn and Venus will be the observing targets. Our two
telescopes are usually enough, but we would welcome a school star
party veteran, with telescope. :-)
Feb 10 - Saturn Observing Night - in conjunction with the JPL Cassini
Mission to Saturn's volunteer program
http://soc.jpl.nasa.gov/experience/gallery-archive-stories.cfm, we'll
join amateur astronomers all over the world showing the planet Saturn
on this night! Monrovia 6-10 p.m., later if there are still
interested viewers.
Feb. 26 Science Fair at a Glendora Elementary School. Again let us
know if you'd like to bring a telescope to Glendora for Science Fair
night. Again, veterans of school star parties, let us know if you
are interested in helping out. 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
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