Busy weekend!

I did two events this weekend--the Monrovia event, mentioned below, and Pasadena, on Friday.

This was my first excursion to Pasadena. I met my friends there, who were set up a block west of Delacey, on the north side of Colorado Blvd. It's really busy there compared to Monrovia, but sidewalk space is at a premium. Still, no problem with three telescopes there.

Because I knew I would have a longer distance to haul my stuff, I brought my Celestron Firstscope 80mm eq refractor. I toss the wooden tripod and mount (with counterweight removed) over my shoulder and stuff the OTA, counterweight bar and weight, eyepieces and diagonal into my guitar case. That makes all the necessities transportable in one trip.

I showed Saturn, which, in my little 80eq, is pretty tiny. But it's still recognizable as Saturn, which surprises a lot of people, particularly when you consider that a telescope like the 80eq can be had for about $150.

Mojo counted off 240 viewers during their time in Pasadena. The line was almost continuous.

Yesterday, I brought my 8-inch SCT to Monrovia. I showed a high magnification view of the moon for a while (about 220x), then shifted to Saturn. In this telescope, Saturn is a lot bigger and the rings are obviously more distinct.

The rings are still nearly edge-on, being inclined about 3 degrees to our line of sight. That makes Saturn look a little bit like a meatball with a toothpick through it.

Between 80 and 120 people stopped to view in Monrovia. The official count was lower, but I think Mojo must have missed some viewers because, again, the line was almost continuous between 7:45pm and 9:00pm.

Twice a week is a little exhausting, but I did want to see what Pasadena was like as a sidewalk astronomy location.

Saturday, March 27 update

This is still "on," weather permitting. However, my original post was before the shift to daylight saving. Now, the sun doesn't even set until about 7:15pm. So I'd expect we'll try to set up sometime around 7:30-7:45pm, and stick around until about 9:30pm or so.

If I do set up early, we might get a BRIEF peak at Venus before it sets. Mars will be overhead, although it is rapidly shrinking. Saturn will rise shortly before sunset, but probably won't clear the buildings around Myrtle and Lime until at least 8:30pm or 9pm. A gibbous moon will be visible during the entire sidewalk event.

Sidewalk Astronomy in Monrovia, Saturday, March 27

Note this is a change from a previous post: Old Town Astronomers are aiming for Saturday, March 27, not the 20th as I previously expected.

We've been having lousy luck with the weather the past three months. Last month's event was clouded out. Hopefully, we'll have better luck this month.

Same location, corner of Myrtle and Lime, from around 6pm - 9pm.

Mars and the moon will be the main targets, with possibly a peek at Saturn late in the evening.

The Globe at Night

Interesting project here.

The goal is to get observations from all over the globe to try to get a better idea of the extent of light pollution. Join in the fun!