Astronomy Day at SJ MLK Public Library

Nice day for sunspots, solar flares, and Astronomy Day at the San Jose Martin Luther King Public Library. The volunteers Isaac, Teruo, Keith, Michael and Kevin made this event a success so thanks to all! But a huge thanks to the Library and staffers Deborah and Judith who helped make this stellar educational day happen! Thanks! Stargazers often say if we get one person hooked on astronomy then that makes any observing session worth it. SJAA did more than that with the 70 folks who stopped by. There were lots of "oohs" "aahs" and "wows" today and one person said he is going home and becoming a member of the San Jose Astronomy club now! Check out the Pics:
 

Observe The Sun Safely - Never look at the Sun without a proper filter! 

 Solar Programs are held 1st Sunday of every Month 2:00-4:00 PM at Houge Park  weather permitting

SJAA 2013 Astronomy Day

Club's H-Alpha Scope and Teruo's SCT

Today's Sun below: AR1726 is the fastest-growing Sunspot and, so far, the most active. It is crackling with C-class flares

At the Booth - Teruo center, Keith Right
Beautiful day to do some Solar Astro chillin'

 Kevin and Michael - Michael's looking through Kevin's 10" Sunpot killer. Any spot on the Sun is revealed in detail.

 Isaac (left) brought Solar Binoculars and a H-Alph Pronto to share with folks

  
Clear Skies !

Cupertino's Earth Day

Cloudy Day At Earth Day Still Saw The Sun

From 11 to 3:30 we had about four 10-20 minute viewing sessions where we offered the public good views of a very active Sun. With Isaac and Hiedi's H-alpha/Standard solar setups, Bill's scope and SJAA's we got a lot of people their first look ever at a massive sun spot plus several smaller ones and above average prominences (prototypical looper) around the solar disk. We had lines of people during these sunshine times. I probably got ~40 people views in 10 minutes ~ 15 seconds per person. During the time of clouds we talked to numerous interested folks or with interested kids the perfect age 9+/- and handed out all of our brochures. We also handed out a decent number of pamphlets on preserving our starry night sky from the International Dark-Sky Association.

Observe The Sun Safely - Never look at the Sun without a proper filter! 

 Solar Programs are held 1st Sunday of every Month 2:00-4:00 PM at Houge Park  weather permitting

Isaac showing our nearest star to folks with his duel scope set-up

 Michael Showing H-Alpha Sun with the camera crew taking notice

  How the sun looked: Standard Filter and H-Alpha

Click to Enlarge!

 Cloudy bouts allowed for great astro conversations

 Young and old got great views when the sun was out

 Great shot of SJJA's dedicated volunteer Bill O'Neil

 Volunteers Michael Heidi Bill and Isaac - Thanks All!

Polar Solar Weekend!

Public Solar Viewing Saturday & Sunday April 6th & 7th:

Sat 11 - 3PM: Cupertino's Earth Day @ Cupertino Civic Center

CLICK HERE FOR EARTH DAY FLYER

Sun  2 - 4PM: SJAA's H+Alpha Day @ Houge Park

POLAR FILAMENT ERUPTION: Not every eruption requires a sunspot. On April 1st (no fooling) a magnetic filament snaking some 800,000 km around the sun's north pole rose up and erupted, hurling part of itself into space. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) recorded the event; 7 O'Clock on the solar dial: