Telescope viewing, ISS Pass this weekend

[Jane H Jones]

This is our sidewalk astronomy weekend.  Join us in Pasadena Friday 
night from 7-10 p.m. somewhere along colorado Blvd in Old Town 
Pasadena, and Saturday Night from 7-9:30 in Monrovia.  Weather looks 
good!

Also, on Saturday night in Hollywood there is a local Yuri's Night 
Celebration  at Cinespace 6356 Hollywood Blvd. Tickets can be 
purchased at www.groovetickets.com.

Saturday the 12th is also International Sidewalk Astronomy Night 
http://www.sidewalkastronomynight.com/ and there are some more local 
events posted on the website's world map.  At the Marine Mammal 
Center in San Pedro, and at Keystone and Chandler in Burbank , and 
also at San Fernando and Palm (near Ben and Jerry's) in Burbank. If 
these are more convenienbt than our locations, join these nice 
sidewalk astronomers at some other events this weekend.  :-)

In the spirit of Yuri's Night, celebrating the anniversary of human 
exploration of space, here is a map of the moon showing all the 
landing sites. 
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/display.cfm?IM_ID=804

And finally, there is a good ISS pass on Saturday night 8:23 p.m. PDT 
- the space station will be visible in the north and will pass right 
through the big dipper's bowl - at 52 degrees above the horizon.  It 
will enter Earth shadow at 8:27 p.m. to the East below Saturn. More 
challenging, and closer to the horizon is the Hubble Telescope pass 
on Saturday night.  Beginning at 9:07 p.m. look low in the west 10 
degrees above the horizon.  It reaches maximum altitude 25 degrees 
above the horizon, and also enters Earth's shadow at 9:13, when it is 
near the bright star Sirius in the SSW.   The Hubble Telescope is 
much fainter than the ISS.
ISS: 
http://www.heavens-above.com/PassSummary.aspx?satid=25544&Session=kebgcpakgcbkogilchegnelk
Hubble: 
http://www.heavens-above.com/PassSummary.asp?satid=20580&Session=kebgcpakgcbkogilchegnelk

April 2008 Highlights
Saturn is the major planet visible in April. Nothing elicits a wow 
like Saturn does! It's visible all night now, and it is higher in the 
sky and visible right after sunset. Mars dims a bit this month, but 
it's still nice and high in the sky and well worth a look.  What's Up 
for March talks about these, plus a fun planetary nebula recently 
studied by Spitzer, and visible through medium sized telescopes. 
http://education.jpl.nasa.gov/amateurastronomy/index.html

Here's a fun project for you - if you can see some bright stars from 
your home, then you may be able to see the winter circle of stars. 
No telescope required - just look up!  The winter stars rotate 
towards the west, making room for the galaxies of spring. The 
constellation of Orion and its neighbors contain what is called the 
Winter Circle of Stars 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Wintersky.jpg. Most of these 
bright stars are even visible from the city!  Look on any star chart 
and find Orion, Canis Major, Canis Minor, Gemini, Auriga and Taurus, 
circling westward as winter ends. These six constellations contain a 
visible "circle" of very bright and colorful stars. If you can 
imagine the circle as a clock, we'll begin with Capella, yellow like 
our sun in the one o'clock position. Capella is the bright yellow 
star in the constellation Auriga, found above the shoulders of Orion. 
Red Aldebaran, the eye of the bull Taurus is at the three o'clock 
position. Red stars are the oldest and coolest. At five o'clock 
stands Rigel, the brilliant blue knee of Orion, the hunter. Rigel is 
young and very hot! Diamond white Sirius, the brightest star in the 
sky, is below Orion in the constellation Canis Major, the great dog. 
It fills the seven o'clock position. At nine o'clock is Procyon, 
another yellow star like our sun, in the constellation Canis Minor. 
The Gemini Twins, Castor and Pollux complete the circle at 10 
o'clock. Castor is white and Pollux (the brighter of the twins) is 
red. Within the circle are red Betelgeuse, the shoulder of Orion, and 
blue/purple stars Alnitak and Mintaka, the pretty belt stars of the 
constellation Orion.

Yearning for more views? Spring galaxies require dark skies. We 
occasionally drive to the Colorado Desert South of of Joshua Tree 
National Park. Where we go is off I-10 about 30 miles east of Indio, 
on a 2-mile dirt road on BLM land, with no "facilities." There is not 
room for a lot of cars, but if you are interested, contact me or Mojo 
for details. Or join the regularly scheduled dark sky parties held by 
the Andromeda Society http://www.andromedasociety.org/ in Joshua Tree 
National Park. April 4, May 5, May 31, July 5, August 2 are the next 
star party dates. This location is more public friendly with a paved 
parking lot, restrooms, and a nearby campground.

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 at jpl.nasa.gov
Cassini SOC http://soc.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm
What's Up? http://education.jpl.nasa.gov/amateurastronomy/index.html
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.otastro.org/pipermail/otevents/attachments/20080410/708c6116/attachment.html