I’m pleased to announce that the Galactic Headquarters of the Cosmos Research Center, which happens to be in my back yard, has been selected as MoonKam participant https://moonkam.ucsd.edu/ which means that we will be able to take pictures from the NASA GRAIL satellites now orbiting the moon.  Beginning in March, 2012, we will be able to logon to send instructions to the satellites orbiting the moon, telling them when and where to snap a photo.  They will send them back to earth, we will download them to our computer, and we will have our very own photos of the moon – perhaps from the far side of the moon that is never visible from earth.

I think the most artistic shots will be of the terminator – what would be sunset or sunrise on the moon, as the sun grazes the craters and rocky parts of the moon.  This would make the shadows more dramatic.

Stay tuned… hopefully, we’ll have our first photos in March!

Here is a promotional video I did for the 2009 San Diego Science Festival.

We will be holding our 4th annual star party at the Orange County Astronomers Club Observatory and the Mighty Kuhn 22″ Telescope in Anza on July 9.  The party is open to OCA members and their families and guests.  We’ll start with a BBQ, then have a science symposium to hear some presentations by young scientists, then have a wonderful evening star-gazing.  The moon will be high in the sky, so we’ll be studying the moon in depth, looking for craters and things on the surface of the moon at great detail.  Bring your camera and become an astrophotographer!  You can use anything from a cell phone camera to a high end digital single lens reflex.  (We will have an adapter for Canon DSLRs, if you have one).  We’ll also see Saturn, and some nebula at the center of the Milky Way.

We are asking for a $5/per person donation to support the club observatory.  Camping is available in the RV area near the Anza House, or arrangements may be available at the Anza House ($5 per person for the night)

Please make a reservation here

Here are some images from previous star parties…

We will be hosting a booth at the 2011 San Diego Science Festival at Petco Park Mar 26.  The topic of the booth is Sound, and we will have two stations:  ”What Does Sound Look Like” will allow kids to make noises into a microphone and see the Amplitude (level meter), wave form (Oscilloscope), and frequency distribution (Spectrograph) in real time.  This will give them an idea of how science uses tools to measure things that might otherwise be invisible.  The other station is “What does hearing loss sound like?” and it will let kids hear music at normal levels, and then at levels simulating what they would hear if they had noise-induced hearing loss due to playing music too loud into their earbuds.

Our booth is in the Western Metal section of the stadium, number WM7.  We will be setting up starting at 8 AM the day of the Expo.  The booth opens at 10 AM, and closes at 5 PM.   We will be staffing the booth in shifts, each shift including at least one adult and 2 kids.

Tentative Booth Schedule:

8:00 – 10:00 Set up, decorate.  Tom, Dianne, plus helpers

10:00 – 11:30 Kevin

11:30 – 1:00 Maria

1:00 – 2:30 Tanya

2:30 – 4:00 Zoom

4:00 – 5:00 ???

5:00 Tear down and load out.

Here is the full info about our booth and the festival policies.

We’re holding our fourth annual science/swim party at the Galactic Headquarters of the Cosmos Research Center on July 3. For more information, contact tom.

Here are the photos from our first Science Club meeting at the Elfin Forest Interpretive Center today.

We had a great time with the microscope, finding all kinds of critters from the Escondido Creek, which flows through the preserve. We’ll be having regular monthly club meetings.

www.flickr.com munnecket’s Elfin Forest Science Center Apr 2010 photoset

Here is a video I made of the San Diego Science Festival at Petco Park March 27, 2010. It had about 120 exciting hands-on science booths, with about 50,000 people attending. (I am a member of the festival advisory board).

And here is my film from the 2009 festival at Balboa Park.

Path of Asteroid Anastasia eclipsing the star Zeta Ophiuchi

We will be out looking for the eclipse of the asteroid Anastasia, as it passes in front of the star Zeta Ophiuchi on the morning of April 6, 2010 at 3:34 AM PDT.  From the web site: Asteroid Occulations:

The eclipse, or "occultation" as astronomers call it, will occur at
3:34 am PDT Tuesday morning, April 6th, in the Los Angeles area.
The star will abrupty disappear for less than 10 seconds, and since
the time uncertainty is less than half a minute, you don't need to
watch very long.  So you can set your alarm to wake up 15 to 20 min.
before the occultation, and be back in bed within half an hour, thus
not loosing too much sleep for this weekday event.

The 25-mile-wide path is expected to pass over Orange County and
extend north from there, over West Covina and Ontario, Calif.
However, the location of the path is quite uncertain; the path could
instead pass over downtown Los Angeles or the San Fernando Valley
(with a small chance that it could pass over even Ventura and
Bakersfield), or it could shift east, possibly passing over San
Bernardino or, rather less likely, over San Diego and Palm Springs.
Even an observer on the predicted central line has only a 26% chance
to have an occultation.

Although seeing the eclipse from the Cosmos Research Center is not very likely, if we could see it, we could
provide some valuable information to astronomers about the exact shape and location of the asteroid.
Its a mind-boggling to think that we can predict a rock passing in front of a star millions of miles away.

In conjunction with the Elfin Forest Nature Interpretive Center, we will be having a science club meeting.

One activity will be to look at water from the creek through the microscope.  Here is scientist Abby looking at pond water:

We will be having our third annual Cosmos Research Center Star Party at Anza, California, on August 14, 2010. We will have a BBQ, a Science Symposium for kids to give power point presentations about the stars, and then will be able to see the sky using the mighty Kuhn 22″ telescope at the Orange County Astronomers club Observatory.

The moon will be up for the early evening, giving us a chance to see it close up for a while.  Mercury, Mars, Venus, and Saturn will be clustered near each other just at sunset.  When the moon sets, we’ll have a dark sky and a chance to see the Milky Way, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune.  With a little luck, we’ll be able to see all the planets in one night!