NASA explains why the world won't end in 2012

Just in case you find yourself talking to someone who believes the world will end next month, NASA has a handy reference page for you to check out.

Endeavour Opens to Public on October 30

I got a "sneak preview" today. It was really cool. ;D

This is the first view of Endea-vour, as you walk into the hanger. It's big, of course. And a little dark. I had to push the ISO up to 400. For shots of the belly, even at 3200 it was dark. Ended up going with a flash for most of them.

This is Endea-vour from the port side. The general flow they expect is you'll walk around and across, and exit from this side. There's also a little sales area near here, with mostly kid-sized NASA-like gear.

I had a friend at the Observa-tory who had an authentic tile. He was able to find where it came from by matching the number (and knowing the general area where it would be located). It's like a giant jigsaw puzzle, with nearly every tile a unique size-shape combination.

The tiles are surpris-ingly fragile, despite their ability to insulate the shuttle on reentry. Here, it looks like the movers dropped it a bit. Wouldn't have taken much for that ding, considering the size and weight of the shuttle.

Some day in the future, Endea-vour will stand as ready for launch, complete with mock ups of the external fuel tank and the solid (fuel) rocket boosters.

Information on seeing the space shuttle can be had at California Science Center's website, linked above.

Sidewalk this Saturday

That's the goal, anyway: Saturday, October 27, in Monrovia, at the corner of Myrtle and Lime. Figure from about 7pm - 9:30pm. Possibly 15-20 minutes earlier on both ends, though.

In the meantime, I'll start working on my LX80 write-up. It'll be several days before I'm done.

No Sidewalk Astronomy on Sep 22

Pretty clouds as the sun sets tonight, which, unfortunately, means no sidewalk astronomy tonight. We'll try again next month.

Endeavour Flyby from Mt. Hollywood Trail

Some of the shots I took today of the Endeavour flyby. It made three reasonably close passes of the Griffith Observatory area, including one practically right over it.

From my perspective, about 1/2 mile northeast of the Observatory, I had the downtown skyline as a backdrop.

The tricky part was going to be framing this and tracking the flying shuttle at the same time. Turned out I only got a few shots sort of like I wanted.

Most of the shots are "as-is." No crop, nothing but occasional adjustments of exposure. I should probably fiddle with the photo software some to try to get better contrast.

By the way: Sidewalk astronomy in Monrovia tomorrow (Saturday, September 22). Probably just the moon, and maybe a few double stars or star clusters. Saturn is setting really early, Mars is quite distant, and Jupiter is at least another month (probably two months) from evening visibility. Figure telescopes will be set up from a bit before 7pm on until about 9pm.

Endeavour is Coming!

Via a round-about flight, the space shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles on Thursday, September 20. I've already scheduled a day off for myself, and plan to be at the Griffith Observatory, for the anticipated flyby of the observatory and Hollywood sign. Of course, if NASA releases more detailed flight plans between now and then, this may change.

Venus in the Morning

As we approach the official end of summer, the days are getting shorter. I need to wake up at about 5:30 in the morning. As sunrise has been getting later, Venus has been getting more and more obvious with each passing day. It's high in the east, almost halfway up the sky by 5:45am. At the same time, Jupiter has been drifting further and further away from Venus. It's well over 2/3 of the way towards zenith by the time I look out my window. If I get to the window late, Jupiter may be invisible, but Venus is bright enough to be seen until around 6am, maybe longer, if I tried harder (I'm using in a rush getting ready for work around this time).

Sidewalk astronomy in Old Town Monrovia (corner of Myrtle and Lime) should be this Saturday, likely starting around 7:30pm and continuing for roughly two hours. Weather-permitting, of course. I won't be able to make this weekend personally, but I'm pretty confident the regular group will be there.

Venus Transit

Spent the afternoon in semi-outreach mode. My friend's a science teacher at La Canada High School. He had a small story written up in the local throw-away, letting folks know he'd have telescopes set up in one of the lots at the high school. I took off a couple of personal hours from work to help staff this. Wound up on the opposite side of the parking lot from everyone else, though. When I got there, I asked the only other person who looked to be setting up to view the transit, and he said yes, he was with the transit viewing group. So I set up on the baseball field, adjacent to the lot, but partially behind a chainlink fence. After I set up, other kids came down from the school with my friend's telescopes and set them up on the east side of the lot. When I got there, there were still lots of cars in the lot, so that looked like a bad idea.

Still spent about four hours on the field, and another hour after I packed up my telescopes helping out my friend, Tom.

Probably had only 30 or so people look through my telescopes, which obviously isn't much over four hours. Several long conversations, though, including a number with folks who had driven down the hill from JPL. This had to be the best informed group of outreach targets I ever spoke to. ;D

In addition to my 100ED with a white light filter, I had my 60mm Coronado set up on the dual saddle, again (just like in Cedar City).

Some decent shots through the white light filter. The h-alpha ones are tougher, though. The contrast in brightness between the background, the main part of the sun, and the rim areas is just so great I can never get the whole thing in proper exposure. The one I posted here has a severely overexposed body, properly exposed rim, and just the trace of a couple of prominences, including one more or less across the disc from the mid-transit Venus.

My wife also brought a trio of "eclipse glasses" at Griffith Observatory on Sunday. They were a big hit, too. The picture at the top of this post is of kids having a ball with $3 glasses rather than multi-thousand dollar telescopes. . . .

Huntingon Library Family Stargazing, May 26, 2012

This Saturday, May 26 is family stargazing night at the Huntington Library. I will be joining some friends to help staff this event, which is scheduled for 7:30pm - 9:30pm. Their website announcement is linked here. Read that and/or call the number in the announcement for more details.

Annular Eclipse from Cedar City

I enjoyed the May 20, 2012 annular eclipse from the top of the "C" Trail, above Cedar City, Utah. I've linked my hiking write-up from that trail of last year.

When I got to the top of the hike last year, I confirmed that there was a paved road coming up from the back, and that the visibility to the west from here was practically unlimited. At the time, I was only thinking of taking a nice hike, and enjoying a nice view. But when I started thinking about places to view the annular eclipse, this spot was immediately placed near the top of my list.

The actual center line of this eclipse passed over Kanaaraville, about 12 miles south of this spot. Interestingly enough, the place they picked to center the eclipse "festivities" was in the road leading to, and the parking area for, the Spring Creek Wilderness Study Area. I had hiked and visited this area during my trip last year, as well.

However, with estimates of several thousand people descend-ing on this tiny town, I thought there was a chance of getting trapped there for hours. I'd miss out on the t-shirt, hot dog, and knick-knack vendors, but I was willing to make that sacrifice.

At the same time, I was pretty sure the top of the "C" trail would attract a fair number of locals. Given the size of the local population, plus the more-organized observing events within an easy drive, I was optimistic that my chosen spot would have a moderate but manageable turnout. Turns out I was right.

I pulled into the lot maybe 20 minutes before first contact. The lot was filling, but not filled. I parked near the entrance, and my wife and I carried most of our telescope necessities to near the overlook. Once having a spot picked out, I walked back to the car, drove back, unpacked the other necessities, then drove the car back to the other end of the lot.

I figure maybe 50 cars in the immediate area and probably 150-200 people milling about. Most staked out a spot down below the lot or right at the front. And some, armed with their own observing equipment, or other comfortable viewing materials, stayed right where they were the whole eclipse. I'd estimate only 50-60 people here at the top of the "C" trail wandered over to our telescopes, which we were happy to share.

The white-light view showed several clusters of sunspots, and was actually reasonably easy to get snap shots through the eyepiece. The slightly higher magnification also made it easy to observe the "bumpy" rim of the moon. It was clearly not a smooth disc or orb, but was slightly ragged, with the peaks and valleys of impact craters and mountains.

The h-alpha view showed a very active solar disc, with prominances around much of the perimeter. The smaller opening of the h-alpha telescope proved problematic for hand-held photography, however, Never managed a usable shot from that one. But the views were outstanding. In particular, the "ring of fire" was actually more dramatic than I was expecting. I also enjoyed some spectacular "Bailey's Beads" shortly after third contact, with many flares and prominances peeking around the rim of the moon.

Mojave Preserve Star Party

The Mojave National Preserve Conservancy is hosting a star party this Saturday, May 19. A longer post and a link to their flyer is on my other blog, My Own 100 Hikes.

Some pictures from St. Mark's

Got a thank you card and some pictures from my contact at St. Mark's. Thought I'd post a few pictures.

Since I didn't get the Coronado until after the specifics of the star party had been announced, solar viewing was not officially part of the show. However, early arrivers got to view the sun through my 60mm Coronado, and to compare those hydrogen alpha filtered views with a "white light" view through my 100ED.

My personal observation is that sunspots show more clearly (with better contrast) in white light. Still, the H-alpha view is cool. The sun was very active on April 27 (the day of our star party), and prominences were, well, prominent. There was one particularly spectacular prominence more or less due south. At least, it was to the south if I got my mirror-reversing and inverted telescopic view thing all figured out. It might have been due west!

After sunset, I took down the two solar telescopes and mounted my big C11. However, high clouds meant we were pretty limited on any deep sky possibilities. So it was the moon at sunset, Venus shortly thereafter, then Mars.

Other telescopes gave great views of Saturn. I stayed with Mars partially because I was able to give it some pretty substantial magnification. It's pretty far and pretty small, still, but larger in my C11 then either the smaller driven scopes or the many non-driven scopes could have practically provided.

The next really big outreach activity should be at the Huntington Library, on Saturday, May 26. Still waiting on details, though. I don't know if they still need me, or if they've lined up another group of amateurs.

Astronomy Outreach This Weekend

I've got two events I'll be working this weekend. On Friday, April 27, I'll be helping out at St. Mark's Lutheran School in Hacienda Heights. It's a big event, with about a half-dozen telescopes and (hopefully) hundreds of eager viewers. It's mainly a school event, but if you lived in the area and want to take a look through a telescope, that wouldn't be a problem. They'll be selling food in their lower parking lot from about 6:30pm, with telescope viewing starting at dusk. Enter from their Sonnet Place entrance (east of Vallecito Drive), on the northwest side of the campus. Vallecito splits off and to the right from Turnbull Canyon Road (you'll feel like you're staying on the "main" road when you do this), and Turnbull splits off of Los Robles, which splits off of Seventh Avenue. Google maps will give you a view of where we're talking about. Meanwhile, on Saturday, April 28, it's the regular Monrovia sidewalk Saturday. Again, from dusk 'til 9:30pm or so. On both nights, we should get plenty of Venus, moon, Mars and Saturn viewing. We might be able to try for a few "deep sky" objects from St. Marks, though probably not until later in the evening (after the crowd thins out a bit). If you go to St. Mark's, make a point of buying some food down below. It's a fundraiser for them, and we like helping them out.

March 31 Clouded Out

If you've looked out your window today (in southern California), you know we're getting clouded out today. So, sorry, no sidewalk astronomy tonight. We'll try again next month.

March 31, 2012 -- Sidewalk Astronomy in Monrovia

Corner of Myrtle and Lime, again, dusk to about 9pm, weather permitting.

Probably the last chance to see Jupiter from the sidewalk this year. That's the moderately bright "star" to the east-northeast. Higher and brighter is Venus. The crescent moon should be in their vicinity the next few nights.

Mars is the brightest "star" to the east, about half-way up the sky by the time twilight ends.

That means four possible targets this weekend. Hopefully, we'll have enough telescopes to show them all to you!

Moon, Venus and Jupiter

If you're been out after sunset the past few weeks, you've undoubtedly seen Venus and Jupiter, even if you didn't know it. Venus is the crazy bright "star" about 1/2 way up from the horizon to zenith (straight above) at sunset, to the southwest. Jupiter is the nearly-as-bright "star" about a fist-width (ten degrees) east of Venus.

On the 25th of February, the moon will be quite close to Venus, making it an even more striking sight. On the 26th, the moon will be near Jupiter.

Meanwhile, Mars is rising an hour or so after sunset. It's distinctively orange, not nearly as bright as Jupiter or Venus, but still pretty obvious, to the east, and rising higher as the night gets later.

The means on our next sidewalk astronomy night (probably on the 25th in Monrovia, corner of Myrtle and Lime), we'll definitely have the moon, Jupiter, and Venus to see. Mars may get high enough over the buildings for us to see before we call it a night.

Next month, Mars, for sure.

It's not a very favorable apparition, though, so it'll still look pretty small, even through a moderate-sized telescope.

December 31 Outreach in Monrovia

Shot from last Saturday's sidewalk astronomy night in Monrovia.

The next sidewalk astronomy night in Monrovia will probably be in late January.