Cancelling Friday - upcoming events abound

A confluence of near clouds and and long commutes will keep us from setting up our telescopes in Old Town Pasadena tonight, but we'll be out in full force at Myrtle and Lime in Monrovia tomorrow night, Saturday the 7th. Then Sunday we go boing and "spring forward" losing an hour of early evening darkness. Daylight Savings Time, or darkness squandering time, as we astronomers call it, starts Sunday. The start times of all our events will spring forward too. Coming up are a lot of International Year of Astronomy events, a few weeknight school star parties, and even an excursion or two to the desert. March 22: Super Science Sunday in Woodland Hills (I am one of the many speakers) http://www.discoverycntr.org/pages/events/sss.htm Two more school star parties - March 24 /Monrovia, and March 31/Hacienda Heights. If you are local and have a telescope we could maybe use some help. March 28: Possible (weather permitting) dark sky observing night near Chiriaco Summitt - I-10 between Indio and Desert Center. If a 150 mile one way drive, ending on a rutted dirt road with absolutely no facilities intrigues you, RSVP to Jane or Mojo. There are some courtesy rules about lights - no white lights, and just let everyone know if you need to drive away, so we just close our eyes for the duration, and RV's and heavy trucks will get stuck in the sand and Triple A will have to be called. There is always room for a couple cars. http://photo.whiteoaks.com/2009-02-28-chuckwalla/index.html March 28th - A more civilized and comfortable location for your first dark sky observing night (with paved parking and toilets, and nearby camping) is the Joshua Tree Star Party at Hidden Valley Picnic Area on the same night. It's a much shorter drive! We're members of the Yucca Valley "Andromeda Society", and occasionally some of us go to this nice spot. But this is an excellent way to try out a dark sky star party and meet (in the dark) some telescopes and celestial sights, and lots of darn nice astronomers. Bring your own binoculars or telescopes. It is a public star party so there are upwards of 100 park visitors walking around looking through the telescopes. April 3 and 4: International Sidewalk Astronomy weekend and also the big International Year of Astronomy "100 Hours of Astronomy" event. If you want to do something special and you have your own telescope, here's where to register: http://100hoursofastronomy.org/ Rather than joining us, or in addition to joining us on one of our nights, why not set up a telescope in your own neighborhood, and register your event on the 100 Hours of Astronomy website! April 5 is IYA Sun Day - I suppose we might do something solar if we have any "solar" energy left. :-) April 25th - Joining forces with the Southwest Herpetologists Society, we're holding the first (annual?) Herping Star Party April 25th at Hole in the Wall Group Campsite in Mohave National Preserve. Group campsites will be "first come first served" Day time herping (for desert tortoises, chuckwallas, snakes and more) and night time star gazing. So far there are about 5 tents-worth of our group going, and I hear there are about 10 Herpetologists. :-) All the other weekends in March and April are travel weekends for Jane and Mojo - lots of family visits for us in the eastern and pacific time zones. May 2 and 3 are JPL Open House http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/open-house.cfm and May 1 and 2 will be our May sidewalk astronomy events. That will be one busy weekend for your sidewalk correspondent! -- 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