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SBAU EVENTS CALENDAR
Also, our VP Ronnie Herron is hosting a LIVE "Astro Hour", Mondays at 11am, at the Youtube SB AstroUnit channel . If you watch, share your comments and questions in its Chat area. GENERAL OUTREACHING INFORMATION To get the latest information on schedules, or event directions, just contact Chuck at 964-8201 or E-mail - Remember Events are subject to cancellation due to rain, pandemic, or other disaster.  Happy Holidays, everyone, and best wishes for the New Year! Moon Occults Mars, Moonday, January 13 The rising Full Moon will pass in front [not behind] of the red planet. Mars will vanish behind the lower left limb of the Moon around 05:51 PM PST, and emerge from the upper right limb near Mare Crisium at about 06:46 PM. You'll need a good view of our eastern horizon to see the beginning of the occultation, at an altitude of only 7 degrees. Friday, January 3, 7 PM Quick planetarium show, then at 7:30, our monthly meeting in Fleischmann Auditorium at SBMNH. This will be a hybrid meeting, also on Zoom. Watch your email or find the link on the SBAU web page. Our speaker, Damian J. Christian, will talk about exoplanet research techniques and discoveries. Saturday, January 4, 5 AM Earth is at perihelion, closest to the Sun for the year. Tuesday, January 7, setup 7 PM Telescope Tuesday at Camino Real Marketplace, in the plaza by the theater. Friday, January 10, setup 5 PM Telescopes for students and family from Fusion Academy. We'll set up at the east end of Shoreline Park. Saturday, January 11, 4 PM AU monthly planning meeting on Zoom. Watch your email for the link. Saturday, January 11, setup 6 PM Monthly Public Star Party at SBMNH, at Palmer Observatory from 7 to 10 PM. Wednesday, January 15, setup 4 PM Potluck dinner for volunteers. Science Night at Mountain View School, 5465 Queen Ann Lane in Goleta. We set up on the blacktop area of the playground, entering through a gate on the N side of campus. Friday, January 17, setup 5 PM Monthly Public Telescope Night at Westmont, at their Keck Observatory, next to the athletic fields. Thursday, January 23, setup 5 PM Telescopes for Science Night at Brandon School, 195 Brandon Drive in Goleta. Wednesday, January 29, setup 5 PM Telescopes for an Astronomy Night at Santa Barbara Junior High School, 721 E Cota Street. We set up behind the Marjorie Luke Theater on campus. Friday, January 31, arrive at 4:30 PM Telescopes for an Astronomy Night at the Bulito Beach site at Hollister Ranch. Potluck dinner at 5 PM, followed by viewing. Access is strictly limited, so if you plan to attend, notify Chuck at macpuzl@west.net to get on the list to get through the gate. Hasta nebula - Chuck McPartlin, Outreach Coordinator — International Space Station (ISS) and other satellites may make a few visible passes through Santa Barbara’s skies. Orbits change, so to get the latest and most complete predictions, visit Heavens Above at https://tinyurl.com/y5yt22ch !!! GREEN LASER USE RULES !!! Starting in 2015, the club has decided that we will not allow the use of green laser pointers at outreaches that are above the legal limit of 5 milliwatts. If you see someone operating a laser which is brighter than this level, please ask that person to stop using it. Night Sky Network.  Using the NSN you can find activities in other areas that you may be traveling to! Try seeing or adding a copy of the events to your Google Calendars:  Google Public Calendar Shareable Link (use to add to your other Google Calendars...let me know if it works or not!) Annual SBAU Campout 2024 Link to Google photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/V1u7dsb9efJycnst5 Annual SBAU Campout 2023 Good Times! Link to Google photos album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/dL8ip7riX2CWK8ze6 Partial Eclipse event & SBMNH Star Party October 14, 2023 great photos from Owen Duncan, the museum media guru: Owen Duncan Eclipse-2023 Owen Duncan Museum Star-Party-October-2023 -click the right side “Gallery password” tab, pw access = sbnature International Astronomy Day, was Saturday, April 29, 2023 We were at the Camino Real Marketplace to celebrate International Astronomy Day by bringing astronomy to the public (see below). There was safely filtered solar viewing, astro gift giveaways, and activities during the day, and a star party that evening. See some photos in an album here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sbaushots/albums Thanks to all those who participated in that successful event! The SBAU campout was at the Mohawk Shores group site at Cachuma Lake, October 21-23, 2022. See some photos of the group at the SBAU Flickr site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sbaushots/albums The annual SBAU campout, with not so great dark skies due to a smoky California, took place at the Mohawk Shores group campsite at Cachuma Lake from Friday, September 24 (afternoon) through Sunday, September 26 (morning). Photos here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sbaushots/albums /72157719916414171 Dear Astronomers, We are writing to invite you to participate in Exoplanet Watch, a new exoplanet citizen science project funded by NASA’s Universe of Learning and led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Exoplanet Watch relies on amateur astronomers and university astronomy students using ground-based telescopes to make observations of transiting exoplanets. This will help keep mid-transit times fresh. With more accurate timing, large observatories and space-based telescopes can make efficient use of valuable telescope time. The Exoplanet Watch website lists nightly observation targets, but any exoplanet transit observations will work. Light curves generated by Exoplanet Watch are shared with the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). Observers and data analysts are given credit for their work in any scientific papers resulting from their contributions. We look forward to studying exoplanets with you! Sincerely, Dr. Rob Zellem and Rachel Zimmerman Brachman On behalf of the Exoplanet Watch team exoplanetwatch@jpl.nasa.gov https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/exoplanet-watch Hasta nebula! - Chuck McPartlin, SBAU Outreach Coordinator |
Donations Do you have telescope equipment that your not using? Donate it to our club and we will find a new user for it. We are a Non-Profit Organization, with a receipt for a possible tax deduction. Please contact Tom Totton at equipment@sbau.org. Thank You! ________________________________________________________ Newsletters  More Local links:  Las Cumbres Obseratory https://lco.global/ staff member and UCSB Professor Dr. Andy Howell has released his latest installment of Science vs Cinema | Star Trek PICARD Also, see this Montecito Journal interview with Andy: Andy Howell interview Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at UCSB https://www.kitp.ucsb.edu/ Talks from the KITP Online Talks archive https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6S-TJHOZnwXRhvBd8Ol_1A including Public Lectures, Friends of KITP Chalk Talks and deeply technical Blackboard Talks, and more. Chuck McPartlin Social distancing is a powerful way to combat the worst effects of the pandemic. We're lucky as amateur astronomers, because we can still go out and look at the sky. But what about those cloudy nights, or days at home? The internet provides many sources of astronomy education and entertainment, plus a host of citizen science opportunities. Here are a few: SB Museum of Natural History - SBNature from Home https://www.sbnature.org/visit/sbnature-from-home Las Cumbres Observatory - based in Goleta https://lco.global/everyone/ Lowell Observatory has a collection of videos: https://lowell.edu/media/video-library/ IOTA - International Occultation Timing Association http://www.occultations.org/ CosmoQuest - work on NASA science projects + podcasts http://cosmoquest.org/ Astronomy Homeschool Resources https://skyandtelescope.org/homeschool-resources/ Astronomy in Isolation by BBC Sky at Night Magazine https://tinyurl.com/ydbrkz52 NASA at Home - ebooks, podcasts, videos, etc. https://tinyurl.com/u4rxmud Gravity Spy - Help scientists at LIGO search for gravitational waves https://tinyurl.com/j6srh4z LIGO E-lab - opportunity for students to do research https://www.i2u2.org/elab/ligo/home/project.jsp Einstein@Home - uses computer idle time to search for neutron stars https://einsteinathome.org/ Space Warps - spot outer space being warped https://tinyurl.com/y8ne6ud2 Planet Hunters - help TESS find exo-planets! https://tinyurl.com/yacorz8t AstroQuest -identify the boundary of every galaxy https://astroquest.net.au/ Planet Four -Terrains - help characterize surfaces on Mars http://terrains.planetfour.org/ SCOPE - Stellar Classification Online Public Exploration http://scope.pari.edu/ Globe at Night - measure & submit night sky brightness https://www.globeatnight.org NASA Citizen Science projects https://science.nasa.gov/citizenscience Galaxy Cruise - classify galaxies with higher quality images https://galaxycruise.mtk.nao.ac.jp/en/index.html A number of online resources can help you refresh or extend your astronomy knowledge. Here are some that could be of use: “Astronomy” http://openstax.org/details/astronomy Free textbook aimed for introductory college-level astronomy. Senior authors include Andrew Fraknoi, and David Morrison. Made in collaboration with the OpenStax Project at Rice University Cambridge University Press https://tinyurl.com/w2z953p Various higher education textbooks Astronomy courses https://bit.ly/39ezF9a Most courses are free college-level courses online Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures https://tinyurl.com/yd5fdegk Well-known scientists discuss astronomy in everyday language Amateur Radio Astronomy - Jiri will be missed For its 75th anniversary, the Astronomical League produced a series of videos highlighting various aspects of amateur astronomy. Past SBAU member Jiri Polivka, who recently entered a parallel universe, was an avid amateur radio astronomer, and produced kits using readily available materials to construct small radio telescopes. He was featured in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c-4jVLnRDo We will miss his enthusiasm for advancing amateur astronomy in our universe. Another Member also passed into the Great Unknown February 2022, Don French. He was very attentive to the night sky and even donated his equipment to the club in his last year. |