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Free telescope, Cassini videos, happy 400th Galileo's Saturn view

by Jane Houston Jones

I was asked by a colleague to see if anyone might want a free telescope, complete with eyepieces. I asked him to take some pictures, and I am offering it to our Sidewalk Astronomy email list first. When I saw the pictures of the telescope, I just had to tell a story about it, so here's the story and the free telescope offer. First person to call Steve and arrange pickup will get it. Don't call or email me with questions - I am out of the office and traveling until Monday. http://jane.whiteoaks.com/2010/07/20/free-telescope-to-first-caller/ Steve is also featured in this awesome video from Cassini today. It's comparing Titan's lakes to Death Valley's Racetrack Playa and the video is on this page. http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/video/videodetails/?videoID=213 The YouTube version is here: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=JPLnews#g/u Finally, back to the solar system. :-) I was in Washington DC last week as part of NASA's 400 years of Discovery - from Galileo to the Outer Planets exhibit in the U.S. House of Representatives Rayburn Office Building. The day of our event was also the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first telescopic look at Saturn. so I wrote this little piece about it for our NASA Solar system Exploration website. Ta da! http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup-archive.cfm Here is what the exhibit looked like: http://photo.whiteoaks.com/2010-07-15-DC/slides/IMG_7009.html Over and out, Jane -- Jane Houston Jones Monrovia, CA http://jane.whiteoaks.com/ http://twitter.com/jhjones What's Up for July? Dark Nebulae http://sse.jpl.nasa.gov/news/index.cfm

15 years, 10 months

Sidewalk Astronomy this weekend

by Morris Jones

Summer has definitely arrived in L.A., and it's promising to be a hot weekend! It's also the weekend of the first-quarter moon, when you see a roughly half-moon in the early evening sky. You might have noticed it growing from a small crescent this week as it passed by Venus, Mars, and Saturn after sunset on successive nights. This weekend we'll be serving up views of the moon, Saturn, and Venus to accidental astronomers at Pamela Park in Duarte, and Old Town Monrovia. Tonight instead of Old Town Pasadena, the astronomers will be set up in small Pamela Park in Duarte. L.A. is keeping several county parks open past sunset this summer. Look for telescopes there tonight between 8:00 and 10:00 p.m. The park's official web page has its location just south of Duarte Blvd.: http://parks.lacounty.gov/Parkinfo.asp?URL=cms1_033233.asp&Title=Pamela%20P… Saturday we'll be at our usual spot in Monrovia at the corner of Myrtle and Lime at Library Park from 8:00 'til 10:00. Now here's a kick -- Monrovia is putting on free outdoor movies in Library Park this summer, and Saturday evening they'll be showing _Star Wars_. Last month this turned out to be a great combination activity, and we had one of our biggest turnouts in Monrovia. Between the hot summer day and the movie in the park, we should have good crowds this Saturday as well. Finally, if any of you still have a telescope in the closet that you've never quite figured out how to set up, I'll be happy to meet you in Monrovia at our Library Park location at 7:00 with my box of tools. Drop me a note if you'd like to do this. If I don't hear from you I won't be there. Mojo -- Morris Jones Monrovia, CA http://mojo.whiteoaks.com Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org

15 years, 10 months

Old Town Sidewalk Astronomers: Web Updates & desert viewing July 3rd

by Jane Houston Jones

I've just updated the otastro.org website with July and August dates for our sidewalk astronomy events. On July16, a few of us will be at Pamela Park in Duarte for a new venue tryout from 8-10 p.m. July 17th is our Monrovia sidewalk date, same hours again - from 8-10 p.m., and just like last month, it will coincide with Monrovia's free movie in Library Park. Both movies and stargazing start "8-ish", but we'll target the moon before it gets dark at 8 p.m. Wow, see stars AND Star Wars! What could be more perfect? Tomorrow night, that's Saturday, July 3rd, a few of us are heading out to the hot desert for a night of stargazing. The moon will rise at about 1:30 p.m. but it will be the third quarter moon, a beautiful lunar phase too few stay up late enough to see. It will be hot. At Desert Center, CA (the closest town) temperatures are predicted to range from a high of 102 to a low of 75. We'd welcome people to join us on our little piece of astro-heaven - 2 miles of washboard dirt road off the I-10 freeway. Wear sturdy rattlesnake and cactus needle-proof hiking boots, and dress for warm weather, but bring a jacket. There are no facilities on this unimproved stretch of BLM land I do bring a PET (portable environmental toilet). And bring plenty of water. We'll leave at 3 p.m. from Monrovia so email before then if you need details or a map.We will arrive by 7 p.m. There is room for half a dozen cars in very soft sandy ground (trucks and RV's have sunk into the sand). But seriously, most people will be staying home readying for Fourth of July festivities, so I have prepared a home-observing project for you all, and it doesn't even require a telescope. Why not try to see Galileo's famous third quarter lunar view Saturday or Sunday morning after midnight and before dawn? Galileo made a series of lunar sketches in 1609, and on December 18, 1609 (4:00UT), he sketched this view of the lunar surface. http://jane.whiteoaks.com/2009/08/31/chasing-galileo-22-day-old-moon-compar… This is the same view you will have over the next two mornings. :-) So step outside this weekend and aim your binoculars at the moon, and get a sense of Galileo saw 400 years ago. If you are interested in observing all of Galileo's views, here is a table of modern dates to complete the project. I did it and it was a great learning and observing project. http://www.pacifier.com/~tpope/Reproducing_Observations.htm You can see the third quarter moon in the daytime, too, tho' the contrast isn't as great in the bright sun. The moon rises at about midnight tonight and sets at about noon, then a smaller crescent rises later each morning until new moon phase in the 10th. Have a safe and sparkly weekend, everyone! Jane -- Jane Houston Jones Monrovia, CA What's Up July 2010? Dark Nebulae! http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/index.cfm What's Up Podcast on YouTube: http://is.gd/c3r1i Twitter: http://twitter.com/jhjones http://twitter.com/CassiniSaturn http://twitter.com/otastro Blog: http://jane.whiteoaks.com/

15 years, 11 months

Fireworks and/or Dark nebulae!

by Jane Houston Jones

For those of you escaping the urban jungle this holiday weekend, pack a pair of binoculars and enjoy the glorious Milky Way after the sight of fireworks is over. A pretty march of the planets is underway too. Mars and Saturn are inching closer to one another (from out vantage point on Earth, that is) with Venus not too far away - all grouped in the western sky at sunset. The sky looked exactly like the images in this month's What's Up podcast at our recent desert outing. In fact, nearly all the astrophotos in July's podcast were taken on that June 12-13 night by Mojo from our dark sky astronomy location. Out next outing should be July 10. If you are interested in seeing an amazing summer sky through big and small telescopes, let me know. We haven't quite decided if and where we'll go, as the desert heats up in the summer, even at night! I have a new webpage for my What's Up podcast and occasional blog entries on our NASA Solar System Exploration website. Here's the new News and Events webpage, and from here you can get to this month's podcast and more. http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/index.cfm And join me and take a stroll through the new Solar System web content. My group at work has been developing, writing and coding it for a year now! There is great kids content! I double dog dare you to try these puzzles! http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/kids/puzzles.cfm YouTube version of the podcast is easier for some people so here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=JPLnews#g/u We'll keep you in the loop with regard to celestial happenings, and we both have some work travel this month. I get to go to Washington DC and be Galileo with my Galilean telescope replica. :-) -- Jane Houston Jones Monrovia, CA What's Up July 2010? Dark Nebulae! http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/index.cfm What's Up Podcast on YouTube: http://is.gd/c3r1i Twitter: http://twitter.com/jhjones http://twitter.com/CassiniSaturn http://twitter.com/otastro Blog: http://jane.whiteoaks.com/

15 years, 11 months

Sidewalk astronomy Saturday in Monrovia

by Morris Jones

Hi all! Because of other commitments, we're not going to be able to set up in Pasadena tonight, but the weather looks good for tomorrow Saturday evening in Monrovia. We'll be at the corner of Myrtle & Lime from about 8:00 'til 10:00 p.m. We should have good views on tap of the moon and Saturn, with possibly some looks at Venus. If there are still some folks who want help setting up a new telescope, drop me a note. I'll be happy to meet you on the corner at about 6:30 while it's still daylight. On "new moon" weekends like last week, we frequently travel out to the Colorado Desert south of Joshua Tree. Jane and I both wrote some great reports on last week's observing. Jane had a "Ten Planet" observing night, while I captured some fun astrophotos: Jane's Ten Planet night: http://jane.whiteoaks.com/2010/06/14/a-ten-planet-night/ Mojo's pictures: http://mojo.whiteoaks.com/2010/06/13/observing-report-dark-desert-june-skie… Best regards, Mojo -- Morris Jones Monrovia, CA http://mojo.whiteoaks.com http://twitter.com/mojo_la Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org

15 years, 11 months

What's Up for June? A planetary necklace!

by Jane Houston Jones

If you were to pick a weekend for all-night stargazing, this weekend would an excellent choice! From dusk on Saturday all the way to dawn on Sunday you'll be treated to a starry necklace of planets, all strung out along the ecliptic plane of our solar system. By midnight or so the Milky Way will begin to span the sky, too! It will be possible to see all 8 planets, 10 if you count Ceres and Pluto (from a dark sky, that is). ;-) Planetary jewelry is topic of the June what's Up podcast, by the way, which you can download from the Solar System Exploration website, complete with additional links. http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup-archive.cfm Also on the JPL website: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/ and YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=JPLnews#g/u In addition to the great planet lineup, early risers will also see a comet, and an asteroid or minor planet, plus you can hunt for Pluto, now demoted to dwarf planet status, but still very special. To see the comet - Comet C/2009 R1 (McNaught) scan the NE sky with your binoculars 15 -20 degrees above the horizon - it will be near the brightest star of Perseus, Alpha Persei or Mirfak - ahhh, that was where the pretty Comet Holmes was just two years ago! It is on the edge of naked eye visibility, which is made difficult due to the low horizon + the nearness of dawn. Comet McNaught gets 1 degree lower every night after the 15th, until it is lost from our view as it reaches perihelion, or its closest approach to the sun on July 2nd. This weekend is the best and nearly the last time to see it. If you snooze through this one you will definitely lose! Minor planets? Dwarf planets? You betcha! Ceres and Pluto are to be found right smack in the thickest part of the summer Milky Way - in the "steam" rising from teapot-shaped Sagittarius constellation. Pluto skims the star cluster M24 and Ceres just stepped out of the Lagoon Nebula, M8. Both the "M's" are naked eye clumps in the Milky Way, and glorious in binoculars. Early morning just before looking for comet McNaught will be a fine time to hunt these two down from a dark sky with a good skychart or star tour guide. From the greater LA area you can still see the brighter planets and you can try for the comet. It doesn't rise until 2 am and the best time to see it will be when it is as high as it gets, just before the the crack of dawn. You need a pretty decent flat horizon (aka no mountains, hills, trees, buildings) to your Northeast. It will only be about 20 degrees above the horizon at its highest. You may see the comet, and some of the faint tail. You won't see the detail shown in astrophotos - those are time exposures, and our eyes don't have those settings, unfortunately. :-( Almost every month your Old Town Sidewalk Astronomers step away from the sidewalk, drive 150+ miles each way, take big and small telescopes out to some of Southern California's great dark sky locations. We are happy to take friends on star tours - but ask first as some of our locations only have room for a couple extra cars (also no trucks or RV's this weekend for example) You can enjoy the darker skies all summer long from many city, state and national parks with nothing more than a pair of binoculars! Pencil in these dates to check against your calendars - these are the dark sky weekends. The week before these is also decent. June 12, July 10, August 7th and September 4+11. September 4th some of us will be at Glacier Point in Yosemite serving up free public stargazing. Anyone in the park is welcome to attend and look through the San Jose Astronomical Association's member telescopes, if you are hiking in the day, bring layers for the night. Glacier Point has astronomy every weekend from July 4 - Labor Day, with different astronomy clubs from Northern California sponsoring each weekend, except for the full moon. Members bring telescopes, guests get looks all night long, weather and telescope operator endurance permitting, that is. That's all for this month, :-) Sky and Telescope comet charts http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/94277259.html Charts for Pluto, Neptune, Uranus - scroll to bottom http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/ataglance Ceres finder chart: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/94737944.html -- Jane Houston Jones Monrovia, CA My blog about Jupiter impacts: http://jane.whiteoaks.com/ My What's Up podcast June 2010: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup.cfm Twitter: http://twitter.com/jhjones http://twitter.com/CassiniSaturn

15 years, 11 months

New telescope owners (followup)

by Morris Jones

To follow up with Jane's post to the list, we'll be repeating the New Telescope Owner's clinic this Saturday in Monrovia, as described here: http://mail.otastro.org/pipermail/otevents/2010-April/000250.html If you're interested in attending, please drop me a note to reserve a spot. I try to keep it to one astronomer per new telescope, so we don't beat each other up. :) 6:00 p.m. Saturday, Library Park, Monrovia Best regards, Mojo -- Morris Jones Monrovia, CA http://www.whiteoaks.com Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org Twitter: http://twitter.com/mojo_la

16 years

Herpetology meeting tonight at Eaton Canyon, sidewalk astronomy on the weekend

by Jane Houston Jones

Hi everyone! We've conducted a couple "Herping Star parties" with the SW Herpetology Society - both astronomers and herpetologists like new moon nights. :-) , I've attended one of their San Gabriel Valley chapter meetings at Eaton Canyon Nature Center at 1750 North Altadena Drive, Pasadena. I see they have a meeting tonight, and I plan on attending. :-) Might not be your cup of tea, but it's a fun nature hobby and I am learning a lot about lizards, tortoises and even snakes! The SGV Chapter is having a Herp Show-&-Tell for our May 20th meeting - meeting starts at 7:30 p.m. Bring your favorite, or your most interesting, herp and tell us what you have observed and learned about it. Please NO VENOMOUS in person, but photos are OK. Also, we have a few raffle items for tonight's meeting. Guests are welcome! BTW, here is my latest herpetology adventure - The Chuckwallas of Amboy Crater: http://jane.whiteoaks.com/ :-) Sidewalk astronomy this weekend - weather permitting, and it does look like weather will permit. :-) Moon, Saturn and Mars will be on view. Old Town Pasadena 7:30 - 9:30 - someplace on Colorado Blvd between Fair Oaks and Pasadena Avenues. Old Town Monrovia - 7:30 - 9:30 - Myrtle and Lime streets. Could be earlier if someone has signed up for telescope clinic - but I don't think anyone has....Two of the regulars, including me, will be at a Girl Scout star party Saturday night, but there will still be telescopes on our Monrovia corner. :-) That's all for now. Jane Jane Houston Jones Monrovia, CA Latest Blog: Some thoughts about Cancer http://is.gd/c0wVU What's Up May 2010? Constellation Stories http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup.cfm What's Up Podcast on YouTube: http://is.gd/c3r1i Twitter: http://twitter.com/jhjones http://twitter.com/CassiniSaturn Blog: http://jane.whiteoaks.com/

16 years

Constellation Story podcast and JPL annual open house this weekend

by Jones, Jane H (1862)

Last August, I sat in a huge tent in the middle of an Ontario (Canada) field waiting to give my talk at the annual Starfest star party. The speaker before me was playing a drum, and singing and telling star stores. The drummer was Wilfred Buck, a Cree First Nation Elder and Science Educator with the Manitoba First Nation Education Resource Center. Wilfred travels the length and breadth of the Canadian province of Manitoba presenting starlab planetarium shows to nearly 60 First Nation schools with 17,000 students. While he drummed, he sang songs and told star and constellation stories he gathered first-hand from Cree First Nation Elders. When it was dark, he took us out into the field and pointed out the constellations while he told even more star tales. :-) I was literally star-struck with his presentation and stargazing stories, and asked him for a copy of it. Over the months, we became friends, and I asked him if I could write up some of the stories and share them with others. He said yes, and then then invited me to the annual First Nation Science Fair in late March (it was awesome!!). Here is how I presented his stories on my blog last year. http://is.gd/b8Lps Recently, I asked him if I could do one of my monthly NASA podcasts about the Cree Constellation stories he shared at the August star partt and he said yes and reviewed my script. :-) So with the rich Cree constellation paintings as a base, Wilfred's stories as the glue, I added some ancient star charts and constellation stories from other cultures to make May's What's Up podcast. And here it is: The SSE version has related links - stories of the Night sky, including one video of Wilfred telling a big bear tale, so click through the links. http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup-view.cfm?WUID=364 Youtube might be easier for some: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=JPLnews#g/u iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/nasacast-whats-up-video-podcasts/id252873 558 Please share with whoever you want. Oh, and this weekend is JPL Open House. On display will be Hubble's Wide-Field Planetary Camera 2 - the camera that saved Hubble! It was built at JPL and was in the Spacecraft Assembly Facility being built when I first visited JPL on a visitor tour over 20 years ago. I'll be in the Solar System exhibit area this year accessorized as Galileo, thanks to Caroline and Joan from our sidewalk astronomers club. I'll be holding a Galilean telescope replica and pointing to missions displays for future missions to the outer planets. Stop by and see me, and I'll also point you to the Cassini exhibit where one of our other sidewalk astronomers, Dr. Scott, will be stationed part of the weekend. :-) Get all the details here: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/ 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 What's Up For May - Constellation Stories http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup-archive.cfm

16 years

Mother's Day planets :-)

by Jane Houston Jones

Happy Mothers day everyone! For you early risers, at dawn on Sunday, May 9th--Mother's Day--the crescent Moon and Jupiter are getting together for a lovely conjunction. Only 5 degrees will separate the two bright celestial delights as they hang together in the sunrise-colored sky. Look for Jupiter below the moon - about the distance of your fist, held up to the sky. If you don't get up early, enjoy the planetary lineup tonight (or any night now). Bright Venus is lower and brighter, Saturn and Mars are higher - Mars is overhead slightly to the west. Wendy took her telescope out to the desert this week and shared views of Saturn with her archaeologists, geologist , botanist, biologist and other ologist staff at their retreat. Kudos to Wendy!!! She is an official Sidewalk Astronomer now, and I'll have to make her a nametag and let her borrow my big telescope now. :-) . Morning chart looking East http://science.nasa.gov/media/medialibrary/2010/05/06/skymap_morning.gif Evening chart looking West http://science.nasa.gov/media/medialibrary/2010/05/06/skymap_evening.gif Speaking of big telescopes, Mojo and I are all packed for a night of desert stargazing tonight out past Indio. It will be our first shirtsleeve weather night. It's short notice, but here are the directions - you can send us (mojane(a)whiteoaks.com) an email if you are planning to come out. Bring lots of water, gonna be hot out there!!! http://www.otastro.org/chuckwalla.html Next weekend, which is our usual new moon outing is also JPL Open House http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/open-house.cfm, so I am working all weekend and can't go play with the stars. :-( Come see me in the solar system exhibit. I will be cross dressing (as Galileo) with a replica of his telescope. Something like this http://photo.whiteoaks.com/2010-03-03-LPSC/slides/IMG_5668.html, but nicer thanks to my sidewalk buddy Caroline, who is helping with some 17th century accessories :-) -- Jane Houston Jones Monrovia, CA Website: www.whiteoaks.com Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org What's Up March 2010? Saturn & 21Lutetia! http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup.cfm What's Up Podcast on YouTube: http://bit.ly/bBUANa Twitter: http://twitter.com/jhjones http://twitter.com/CassiniSaturn Blog: http://jane.whiteoaks.com/

16 years

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