Sidewalk Astronomy clouded out Saturday (tonight)

The skies over Monrovia are covered with marine layer right now. The skies at Mount Wilson, on the other hand, are clear, sort of. Take a look at the Mt. Wilson 150-foot towercam, and you'll see clear skies at the peaks, but creeping marine layer almost reaching to the observatory. http://obs.astro.ucla.edu/towercam.htm#imagetop So, sadly, we're cancelling Sidewalk Astronomy tonight. Next Saturday night, is a not-quite-full-moon, and we'll tentatively reschedule for that night -- Saturday, October 27th, 6:30-9:00 p.m. This cloud layer will also wash out meteor watching overnight, too, most likely. The forecast calls for a slight chance of drizzle after 8 p.m. Some of our astronomers will be heading east to catch some shooting stars. If you are so inclined, take a look at all these astronomers maps - the Clear Sky charts, and head for an area not showing white in the hourly grids - those indicate cloud cover. http://cleardarksky.com/csk/prov/California_charts.html Finally, since it's an indoor-stargazing and meteor-gazing kind of night, here's a writeup about the huge meteor (probably a small asteroid, actually) that broke up over northern California last Wednesday night. There were reports from Long beach to Red Bluff, with a sonic boom and a terminal burst - like a roman candle as the meteor broke up into pieces. It broke up over Marin County, where I grew up! Dr. jenniskens is out looking for dark pieces this weekend. if you find one, take a picture and send it to him by email petrus.m.jenniskens <http://petrus.m.jenniskens>@ nasa.gov Over and out, Jane -- Jane Houston Jones Monrovia, CA What's Up Podcast for Sept: Observe and wink at the moon On Youtube: http://is.gd/kPUtSx Twitter: http://twitter.com/jhjones /CassiniSaturn /otastro My Blog: http://jane.whiteoaks.com/ Yosemite Video http://www.youtube.com/user/yosemitenationalpark?feature=watch