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:

SJAA Solar Picnic

  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 Solar Picnic - Fun Under the Sun!
 
Double Trouble: Michael Swartz's H-Alpha and Standard Filter duel scope setup

 

 Today's Sunspots: small but with good distribution. Solar proms: Numerous and Large

Relaxing Solar Picnic was the note of the day!

Bill O'Neil (Left) Sunspots views using 18Ga aluminum and powder coated white or
 "Baader" type white solar filter

 

Michael Packer checking out H-Alpha emission 

 Next Solar Party is Sunday March 3rd

Volunteers with scopes and SJAA members get free hydration (water and soft drinks)

Comet L4 PANSTARRS

YES PANSTARRS is Still Visible In Silicon Valley!
 Use Binoculars - Use a smart phone astro app if you got one.
MEDIA CONTACT: Michael Packer at m.packer@yahoo.com

How to view L4 PANSTARRS
 http://astrobob.areavoices.com

PanSTARRS is high enough to see in Silicon Valley. Folks have seen it around the South Bay at Shoreline and at the March 15th SJAA Beginner Class. Kids got a 30 minute view at Houge Park before it set. Use Binoculars! It is now a superb small telescope object at places like Fremont Peak.

Where in Sky
 Click to Enlarge

 Seek out a good Western horizon and start looking with binoculars in the evening ~ hour after sunset. The comet is still just visible without using binoculars but is hard to find without them. And binoculars will let you see detail like the tail.

 IMAGE OF COMET SATURDAY MARCH 16th

IMAGE OF COMET LEFT OF MOON FROM SKYLINE BLVD MARCH 12th

Above image was taken by Michael Packer on March 12, 2013 Nikon D3s, 230mm, f6.0, ISO1000, 3/4s exposure.

Comet L4 PANSTARRS click image to enlarge

"The above image was taken by Ignacio Diaz Bobillo on Feb 15th through a telescope, I'm sure you will agree this is a wonderful capture and full of potential for nice show on the weeks ahead. The green colour around the coma (comet's head) is the gas/ion envelope around the comet's nucleus and the white/gold colour is the dust tail reflecting light from the sun. L4 Panstarrs sports a very high abundance of dust which indicates a fairly large and very active nucleus which should continue to brighten every day as solar heating and pressure increases."

Comet PanSTARRS is named after the person or group that discovered it. In this case, the University of Hawaii's Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System Pan-STARRS which is an innovative wide-field imaging facility developed for astronomy. It's full name C/2011 L4 PanSTARRS is a non-periodic comet discovered in June 2011 that is expected to be visible to the naked eye when it is near perihelion in March 2013.

Solar Sunday Report Feb 10th

Solar Sunday Report February 10th,  2013

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

A beautiful California day provided a good crowd and fun viewing of the solar disk. Malika's projector showed the major sunspots. And Michael Swartz's dual refractor set up (Neutral density green and H-alpha - both with binoculars) simultaneously displayed the sunspot and prominences in great detail. 

  Photo courtesy of Jag Sonti

With the Rotation of a new spot into field of view the Sunspot Count Jumped to the 40's and solar viewers got to see the Wilson Effect - See below images.

Click Image For Larger View!

We have another Solar Observing Day this month on Feb 24th and as usual 1st Sunday March 3
Come on out. (Folks with solar setups and scopes are provided with water.)

Feedback on February Astronomy Class

Hello SJAA Members and Friends,

Friday saw another excellent installment of Mark Wagner's beginner astronomy classes. I'd like to ask that if you attended the class, please fill out the survey below.  This is just an experiment to start to gather feedback about SJAA programs, but the information will be reviewed by the board and used to help guide future events. And of course, responses are anonymous and will be held in strictest confidence.

Thank you in advance.
Rob Jaworski