From jane@whiteoaks.com Wed Dec 16 20:47:21 2020
From: Jane Houston Jones <jane@whiteoaks.com>
To: otevents@otastro.org
Subject: December stargazing from the Old Town Sidewalk Astronomers
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2020 12:47:15 -0800
Message-ID: <fa1718b9-20f3-1c99-524d-1328d0db2bb1@whiteoaks.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="===============2776788895411758806=="

--===============2776788895411758806==
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Hi stargazers!=C2=A0 There has been plenty of publicity about the December=20
Gemind meteor shower, but we haven't really wanted to promote public=20
get-togethers for stargazing.=C2=A0 You may still be able to see some for the=
=20
next few days, as this shower is active from Dec 1 through the 22nd.=20
We're a few days past the peak of Dec 13/14, but if you want to get up=20
and look outside from your darkest corner, between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m.=20
you may get lucky!

The International Meteor Organization publishes a great weekly and=20
monthly wrap-up of meteor activity.=C2=A0 You can bookmark here=20
https://www.imo.net/viewing-the-geminid-meteor-shower-in-2020/

No doubt you have been watching the great planets Jupiter and Saturn in=20
the night sky.=C2=A0 I like this write-up from Astronomy Magazine:=20
https://astronomy.com/news/2020/12/jupiter-and-saturn-will-form-rare-christma=
s-star-on-winter-solstice.=20
Keep looking low in the southwest sky an hour after sunset. December21=20
is the closest of conjunction, and both this article and NASA's What's=20
Up video shows where to look and what's up with that! I'm sure you've=20
been watching the pair get closer to one another over the last several=20
months! https://youtu.be/NEVCDhEyKx0

One fun at-home stargazing project is sketching the moon.=C2=A0 I've been=20
sketching and writing about lunar observing for over 30 years.=C2=A0 My first=
=20
lunar writeup, for the Sidewalk Astronomers newsletter was called "A day=20
in the life of the moon".=C2=A0 It features whimsical lunar phase drawings=20
made by my mom Barbara Miller, now 90 and still drawing and painting!=20
http://photo.whiteoaks.com/2009-galileo&me/slides/moonwriteup004.html

For your armchair enjoyment, here is my 2009 sketching series honoring=20
the 400th anniversary of Galileo's own first telescopic sketches in=20
1609. I used a small small refractor of a similar aperture to Galileo's=20
own 1609 telescope, but with 20th century optics. My series of sketches=20
recreate Galileo's own sketches of sunspots, stars and clusters (like=20
the Pleiades and Orion's Trapezium stars), planets and their moons (the=20
famous Galilean satellites of Jupiter) and moon phases. Galileo even=20
sketched Jupiter and unknown-at-the-time Neptune, and I sketched them=20
both, too. Scroll=20
http://jane.whiteoaks.com/2009/05/25/chasing-galileo-sketches-through-a-small=
-refractor/.=20
I used the same small 3" x 5" (or occasionally 5" x 8" spiral bound=20
Strathmore sketch pads and=C2=A0 Faber Castell blacklead pencils I used to=20
start this hobby decades ago. If you decide to try sketching, send me=20
some of your examples. Over and out!

Jane

--=20

Jane Houston Jones, retired JPLer
  *:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:
Twitter: @jhjones @otastro Instagram @janehoustonjones
http://www.otastro.org/
Astronomy, travel, music, food, cats


--===============2776788895411758806==--


