Here at JPL, phones are ringing off lots of different hooks with
members of the public asking about viewing Mars tomorrow night. I've
even received calls from scout leaders planning "Mars Spectacular"
viewing events. I wish there was a scout badge for critical
thinking. :-(
Some of you folks may be getting questions too, so I thought you
might like these sound bytes.
A misleading chain letter hoax has been going around since June 2005.
The subject line of the chain letter is often 'Mars Spectacular".
It's a recycled chain letter from 2003, but with the year omitted,
and additional misinformation added. The "date" of the special
viewing night, according to this email is tomorrow, August 27th.
August 27th was the date of Mars Opposition 2003. Some people read
chain letters, and without applying any critical thinking, assume
they must be true. Then they forward them to everyone they know, who
forward them.....on and on and on.
The email is recycled and refers to Mars at opposition August 27th
2003, 2 years ago.
Earth and Mars make a close approach every 2.2 years. Mars opposition
in 2005 is October 30, 2005.
NASA has this article about it: Beware the Mars Hoax
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/07jul_marshoax.htm
Sky and Telescope Magazine has this: Don't get snookered by Mars
Malarky.
http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/planets/article_1556_1.asp
2005 will be a spectacular year to view Mars at opposition, but not
this weekend. Mars will be a beautiful reddish "star" in the sky
early in the evening from late October 2005 through spring 2006.
Suggest that people contact a local science center or astronomy club
near that time for locations of Mars viewing events.
If people want to see Mars right now (and avoid embarrassment if they
planned an event Saturday night) they have to stay up late. Mars
rises in the east at about 11 p.m. and is high overhead at about 3
a.m. The last three mornings, Mars and the moon have been sharing the
sky, dancing together on the ecliptic plane of our solar system. Mars
is gorgeous in the western sky at dawn every morning.
There are two bright objects in the western sky right after the sun
sets right now. Some people may think one or the other is Mars.
They are not. Venus is the lower (and brighter) of the two and
Jupiter is higher and 6 times fainter. These are the planets to view
right now. Save Mars for later in the year.
I created a Mars 2005 page http://www.otastro.org/Mars2005/ As Mars
becomes visible earlier in the evening, we'll be planning more
viewing events, and updating this page.
Mojo and I are off the to the Oregon Star Party tomorrow morning.
http://www.oregonstarparty.org/2005activities.htm We'll be back
after labor day, and our next sidewalk dates are September 9th
Pasadena and September 10th Monrovia.
--
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
First quarter Moon this weekend!
There might be a chance for some Jupiter observing shortly after sunset
if we find a spot with a good southwest horizon, but mostly it's a Moon
weekend. Jupiter will be leaving the early evening skies quickly now.
Tonight (Friday August 12):
Old Town Pasadena, Colorado Blvd. near Delacey, 7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Tomorrow (Saturday August 13):
Old Town Monrovia, Myrtle & Lime, 7:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.
Sunset this evening is a 7:42 p.m. We can always see the Moon before
sunset, but it looks better after. :)
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
Hello astro people
I have quite an interesting job doing outreach for the Cassini
Mission, and I get the most interesting things in the mail. A few
weeks ago I received a music score and recording of a middle-school
band composition inspired by the Cassini mission to Saturn, called
"Cassini's Rings". I sent it out to everyone here at Cassini, and
they just went nuts over it.
One of my co-workers plays in the La Canada Community Band - he plays
the euphonium and sits in front of the tubas, but I digress. He asked
the composer for permission to premier it here on the west coast and
the community band is doing just that this weekend. I'll be happy to
pass on the conductors contact info once school is back in session
for any of you who might be interested in sharing it with your own
school bands. :-)
So here's the scoop:
Michael Oare, Director of Bands at Great Bridge Middle School in
Chesapeake, Virginia was inspired by the Cassini Mission to Saturn.
He created a composition for middle school band featuring a melody
based on the 7 major rings of Saturn: D, C, B (Bb), A, F, G and E .
Michael writes "The spacecraft studies Saturn, its moons, and its
famous rings. The major rings of Saturn are named, in order of their
discovery, for the first seven letters of the alphabet. The letters
(notes) D, C, B (Bb), A, F, G and E form the order of the rings based
on their respective distance from the planet, closest to farthest.
The melodic material in Cassini's Rings is based on this seven-tone
row."
My co-worker (and fellow amateur astronomer) Steve Edberg from JPL
arranged with the composer, Michael Oare, and conductor Sue Hamre of
the La Canada Community Band to present this piece on Sunday August
14th at La Canada's Memorial Park.
Where: Memorial Park is on the north side of Foothill in La Canada
two traffic signals west of Angeles Crest Highway
When: Sunday August 14th. The concert including this piece begins
at 5:00 p.m. This concert is part of the concert series held at
Memorial Park every summer Sunday.
What to bring: chairs or blanket and a picnic dinner.
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
It's time again for the annual August meteor shower, the Perseids. Jane
has written some good tips for observing the shower, and I've included
them on the Old Town Astronomers front page -- but the best rendition is
here on the San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers page:
<http://sfsidewalkastronomers.org/newsarticles/perseids>
Best regards,
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
KPCC has an audio stream of our astronomer-on-the-street interview for
their program "Past Sunset."
Go to the Past Sunset web page,
<http://www.scpr.org/programs/pastsunset/> and scroll down for the
"Sidewalk Astronomers" story.
It might have been the best three minutes of the show. In any event,
it's fairly short. :)
Best regards,
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
Last week on Colorado Blvd. while showing Jupiter and the Moon, we were
visited by a reporter from KPCC, the public radio station at 89.3 FM.
She was preparing a story for KPCC's new evening program "Past Sunset"
with David Cruz. Our story is scheduled to air tonight.
The program runs from 7-9 p.m., and our segment should be heard a little
after 8:30. It is a live show, so that could be unpredictable.
We'll be hearing it for the first time tonight, so we don't know what to
expect either. If some of you visited the telescope last Friday the
15th, you might hear yourself!
Today's web page for the program includes a plug for the story:
<http://www.scpr.org/programs/pastsunset/>
Best regards,
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
Hello stargazers,
Last weekend we had fabulous dark skies and wonderful weather for the
Glacier Point star party in Yosemite National Park with the San
Francisco Amateur Astronomers. We were joined by a writer and
photographer from the L.A. Times "Outdoor" section, so watch for a
feature article appearing there sometime soon. Our website has a little
photo album from the weekend here:
<http://www.otastro.org/2005-07-sfaa-yosemite/>
We plan to bring telescopes out as usual Friday night, and set up as
close to the Barnes and Noble bookstore on Colorado Blvd as parking
spaces permit. At midnight, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"
goes on sale. :-) So there will be lots of folks out late, we
suspect, and the first quarter Moon will be high overhead. If you'd like
to join us and hand out Moon cards, we'd love some company. It's a bit
tight for additional telescopes on the Colorado Blvd. sidewalk -- two is
plenty.
Also if you're interested in meeting John Dobson, he'll be on the roof
of the parking lot at the Barnes & Noble in Burbank Friday evening from
7:30 p.m. 'til midnight. <http://sidewalkastronomers.us/schedule/?id=1692>
There are three local stargazing events this Saturday, and we'll be out
of town on Saturday night anyway. If any of you want to bring your own
telescopes to Library Park, Monrovia on Saturday night, we'll leave it
on our schedule. Otherwise we'll cancel our local event and encourage
people to attend these events instead:
Three local events Saturday July 16
Eaton Canyon Nature Center 2005 Twilight Program 7:30 - 9:30 p.m.
($3.00 donation requested) http://www.ecnca.org/Cassini_Flier.htm
Colorado Street Bridge Party
http://www.pasadenaheritage.org/bridgeparty.html ($15.00 at the gate )
Telescopes in Education will be there in the park for this event. Read
down to the "entertainment" section of the announcement for more
information.
Griffith Park monthly star party 2- 10 p.m.(free)
Griffith Observatory Satellite in NE corner of Griffith Park.
http://www.griffithobs.org/Special.html
Best regards,
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
Jane and I are going to give it a try this evening in Old Town Pasadena,
though we'll probably have some interruptions from clouds.
The NWS forecasters are hedging their bet on tonight's forecast by
calling it "partly cloudy." We're catching the southern tail of a cold
front that may help clear out the marine layer gloom, but bring some
higher clouds of its own.
We'll have a large gibbous Moon high in the sky early, and we should be
able to show it in the telescope well before the sun sets at 8:06 p.m.
A little after sunset we'll be able to show bright Jupiter high in the
south.
For the next several weeks, the sky will have two very bright star-like
objects in the sky: Venus low in the west shortly after sunset, and
Jupiter high in the south. Venus is slightly brighter, but it may not
seem so against the twilight sunset glow.
Right now, Saturday evening looks like a carbon copy of Friday. We'll
give the sky another try in Monrovia.
Details:
Friday, June 17, 7:00 p.m. 'til 10:00 p.m., Old Town Pasadena, Colorado
Blvd. near Delacey (somewhere between Fair Oaks and Pasadena Ave.) on
the north side of Colorado.
Saturday, June 18, 7:00 p.m. 'til 9:30 p.m., Old Town Monrovia, Library
Park at the corner of Myrtle and Lime.
Best regards,
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
Jane and I are back from our week-long trek to the annual Grand Canyon
Star Party. It was a great week full of canyon and sky!
I've put a little photo album together on the OTAstro web site here:
<http://www.otastro.org/2005-06-GrandCanyon/>
We're planning some Moon and Jupiter viewing this coming weekend, if the
June Gloom permits. I'll send a weather update tomorrow evening.
Best regards,
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
I meant to say this weekend is our last scheduled excursion *in May* --
we have plans for lots more sidewalk astronomy. :)
Also of note -- this weekend is the annual Open House at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada. It's definitely worth the trip, but
be aware that the event draws enormous crowds, so go early if you're
going! The really best time is early Sunday morning.
You should also be aware that JPL is a huge place and built into a
hillside. Bring your comfiest walking shoes, lots of water, and be
ready to climb a few hills.
More information is available at JPL's web site, <http://www.jpl.nasa.gov>.
Best regards,
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
