Step out tonight (I'm writing this at 9 p.m.) and have a look at the
moon and Jupiter - both rising in the southeast! Look at their
positions tomorrow night too!
And since I have your attention :-) the Cassini Mission website has a
great feature written by Todd Barber, our Cassini Lead Propulsion
Engineer, who often operates one of out telescopes for sidewalk
astronomy in Pasadena. Todd spent last week at the Smithsonian Folk Life
Festival in Washington DC, and he shares some of this thoughts about the
event in a lovely "Insiders Cassini" piece. The recent pictures aren't
too shabby either! http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm
Jane
Jane Houston Jones
Monrovia, CA
34.2048N 118.1732W, 637.0 feet
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
We have a milky sky in Monrovia, but expect the moon to be visible at
least most of the time. So we'll bring some telescopes out to Myrtle &
Lime in Monrovia tonight, maybe with abbreviated hours, given the sky
conditions.
Our only telescope target will be the moon. Saturn is setting quickly
in the evening twilight, and Jupiter rises just a little too late.
There are a few isolated thunderstorm cells near San Bernardino and
Riverside. If our site looks threatened when I check the radar at about
6:00, we'll call it off.
So it's not a night to make a special trip to look through a telescope.
Save that for next month, when we'll have Jupiter joining the moon.
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
The monsoon conditions this week bring us heat, humidity, clouds, and
increasingly this weekend the threat of thunderstorms.
While it's unlikely that we might actually get caught in a thunderstorm
tonight on Colorado Blvd., these aren't conditions conducive to sidewalk
astronomy. So tonight's outing is canceled.
I'll revisit the forecast tomorrow for Monrovia, though at this time the
conditions look about the same.
Cheers,
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Sidewalk Astronomers http://www.otastro.orghttp://twitter.com/mojo_la
Step outside when the sun sets this week for a nice pairing of red
rocky Mars and gassy giant Saturn. Then turn yourself around and
watch bright Jupiter rising low in the southeast. You won't need a
telescope to see these three planets. You just need good horizons,
clear skies, and the ambition to step outside.
Here is a little feature I wrote for the JPL website explaining
what's going on this week:
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/scitech/display.cfm?ST_ID=2198 . I hope
you'll share it with your friends.
Our Old Town Sidewalk Astronomers website also features these star
charts, and July's monthly astro roundup. http://www.otastro.org/
And speaking of the Sidewalk Astronomers, weather permitting, we'll
be out with telescopes this weekend. I say weather permitting because
there is a slight chance of monsoon thundershowers this weekend here
in southern California. You can follow the weather forecast yourself
if you'd like to, but we'll update our webpage (top right box) with a
weather cancellation if it is warranted.
LA weather from NOAA:
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/forecast/MapClick.php?site=LOX&llon=-118.968747&rlo…
Weather permitting this weekend:
Friday July 11 Colorado Blvd 7:30 - 10 p.m. but we may not be able to
see Mars and Saturn or Jupiter - buildings and palm trees may be in
the way. Beautiful view of the moon, however.
Saturday July 12 Myrtle and Lime, Monrovia 8:00 p.m. - 10 p.m. same
planetary disclaimer as above.
.
Over and out, 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 SOC http://soc.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm
What's Up? http://education.jpl.nasa.gov/amateurastronomy/index.html
Hello intrepid stargazers!
You might have noticed our weird weather lately . Well, I can"t really
explain the weather, but I can talk about the sun a little bit.
Here is my monthly NASA podcast. My idea is to share the sun with you.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/videos/whatsup/whatsup20080630/
Jane
--
Jane Houston Jones
Monrovia, CA
34.2048N 118.1732W, 637.0 feet
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
