Rosemead Park, Friday, August 8, 2008

Greetings Fellow Stargazers!

Our third excursion into sidewalk astronomy in Rosemead will be this Friday, August 8, from around 7pm - 9:30pm, in Rosemead Park. We’ll set up just west of Encinitas, across the street from where Rose St. intersects with Encinitas. It’ll be a little south of the point noted on the google map link, here.

I have previously announced this event on the Save Our Community website, but I thought I’d also start a purely astronomical, non-political blog for our Sidewalk Astronomy events, especially the ones we have in Rosemead. But, for additional information on the concert, and a link to the band's (80 Degrees) website, take a look at my SOC post, here.

My wife and I have been doing sidewalk astronomy for the past three years or so. About once a month, we’ve been joining the Old Town Astronomers in Monrovia’s Library Park. We’ll continue doing that, of course. In fact, on Saturday, August 9, from around 8pm - 10pm, that’s where we’ll be.

But on those occasions when there’s a good excuse to set up in Rosemead, we’ll do that, too.

That’s what we love about this Summer Concert Series. Four times this year, we get a nice regional band to provide free entertainment for the whole family. Many people come specifically to hear the music and see the band. But many others come to enjoy the rest of the park; the music just provides a different backdrop. Some come to picnic, some to swim, some to play basketball, some to walk or job. It’s a nice mix of people from all over Rosemead and surrounding communities.

We bring our telescopes to add another dimensions to the entertainment. Most people aren’t going to bother stopping by for a look through our telescopes. But if you’re curious, there we are. It’s entirely free. There’s no charge to look through the telescopes, and we won’t try to sell anything. We just want to share a view of a little part of the universe we live in with our neighbors.

Both this Friday (in Rosemead) and this Saturday (in Monrovia), we’ll have a beautiful first-quarter moon and a pretty view of Jupiter. Jupiter is near opposition at the moment, which means it’s about as close to Earth as it will get for the next year or so. That means it rises near sunset and appears as large as it will appear all year. In our amateur telescopes, you should be able to see several cloud belts, as well as the four Galilean satellites.