Dr. Peter B. Landecker (landecker@cyberdude.com)

Date Time Activity Meeting Place

Monday, 8/18⁸ 8:00-10:30 p.m.¹ Viewing Through Telescope² ** Parking Lot

Tuesday, 8/19⁹ 8:30-10:30 p.m.¹ Advanced Telescope Viewing³** Parking Lot

Wednesday, 8/20¹⁰ 3:30-5:15 p.m.¹ Astronomy Questions Answered⁴ Craig's Cabin

Thursday, 8/21⁷1:30-5:15 p.m.¹ Big Bear Solar Observatory Trip⁵ Parking Lot

¹Please wear warm clothing and shine flashlights down.

Angelus Oaks (34.1460°N, 116.9820°W)

²Double stars, Milky Way galaxy, Earth satellites, Jupiter and its moons, Mars just after sunset

³Viewing unusual nebula, globular and open star clusters and galaxies (Messier objects), meteors.

⁴Black holes, planetary probes, asteroid-Earth collisions, how telescope works, how

solar system moves, origin of universe, life on Mars, why few planets visible, etc.

Anything you always wanted to know about astronomy but were afraid to ask!

Request astronomy information and sample question handouts from Peter.

⁵Carpool to Big Bear City, private tour of working world class solar physics observatory in lake!

Request a map from Peter. Also, see BBSO web reference below.

⁶Asteroid 2198 Ceplecha Closest Approach To Earth (1.406 AU)

⁷ Asteroid 2006 SQ372 Closest Approach To Earth (23.323 AU)

⁸ Comet C/2008 L2 (Hill) Perihelion (2.318 AU)

⁹ Cassini, Distant Flyby of Pallene, Asteroid 12397 Peterbrown Closest Approach To Earth (2.465 AU)

¹⁰Comet C/2007 B2 (Skiff) Perihelion (2.975 AU), Asteroid 9885 Linux Closest Approach To Earth (1.438 AU)

¹¹Asteroid 31664 Randiiwessen Closest Approach To Earth (1.572 AU)

**Beware of Celestron C8 telescope electrical cord on ground and telescope tripod legs.

Other Astronomical Events (click on hyperlinks for more information)

February 21 Total Lunar Eclipse 03:26 UT

March 20 Vernal Equinox (days and nights equal time) 05:58 UT

June 21 Summer Solstice (longest day in northern hemisphere) 00:00 UT

July 4 Earth at Aphelion (1.017 AU from Sun - furthest from Sun)

August 1 Total Solar Eclipse (Canada, Greenland, Siberia, China) ~10:00 UT

August 8 First Quarter Moon 21:16 UT

August 16 Full Moon 21:16 UT

August 12 Perseid Meteor Shower Peak

August 16 Partial Lunar Eclipse 21:09 UT

August 23 Last Quarter Moon 23:50 UT

August 30 New Moon 19:58 UT

September 22 Autumnal Equinox (days and nights equal time) 15:40 UT

December 21 Winter Solstice (longest night in northern hemisphere) 12:02 UT

Interesting Links

http://www.bbso.njit.edu/ Big Bear Solar Observatory

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/calendar/ Space calendar of astronomical events

http://www.heavens-above.com/ Satellite visibility from Los Angeles

http://spacescience.nasa.gov/news/ NASA space science news

http://www.astronomy.com/content/static/magazine Latest issue of Astronomy Magazine

http://www.skypub.com/ Sky and Telescope Magazine

http://nightskymag.com/ Night Sky Magazine

http://pswirl.org PSWIRL 2008 information

http://www.debenneville.org/index.html Camp De Benneville information

http://www.lafn.org/~bf684/index.htm#Astro Landecker’s Home Page astronomy

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/MoonPhase.php Earth Moon phases

Night Sky at deBenneville, August 20, 2007 at 8 p.m. PDT from http://www.heavens-above.com/

Locations of planets in our Solar System, from http://www.heavens-above.com/

Planet	Distance (in AU) from		Speed (km/s)
Planet	Sun	Earth	Speed (km/s)
Mercury	0.43	1.25	42.54
Venus	0.72	1.59	35.13
Earth	1.01	0.00	29.43
Mars	1.62	2.37	22.65
Jupiter	5.16	4.38	13.15
Saturn	9.33	10.31	9.86
Uranus	20.10	19.18	6.49
Neptune	30.03	29.02	5.44