Friday after Thanksgiving

by Jane Houston Jones

We were itching for some sidewalk astronomy. On Thanksgiving eve we saw a movie at the renovated Rafael Film Center http://www.finc.org/rafael.html in San Rafael. If you like to tap your toes you'll love "Standing in the Shadows of Motown". We made a mental note of where Saturn was at 9:00 p.m at movie start and planned a date on that sidewalk for the next clear night.

When we got home from the movie, we set up our f/9 AP180EDT and watched Saturn, Jupiter plus a cool shadow transit of Callisto at 3:00 a.m. and Mare Orientale and other mooning features at 5:00 a.m.and continued all the way to Mars, great crescent Venus and sunrise. Talk about a great wheel! The shallow sky has one too, and we saw our ecliptic path from Saturn to sunrise at about 6:30 a.m. Then we put "Rod" the AP180 back in its box and slept until turkey time.

Friday night we packed the car with Liteboxes and drove 2 miles to downtown Fourth Street. The street was blocked! There was some kind of holiday fair going on on OUR sidewalk astronomy street. Liteboxes being fairly light, we parked a block away and walked our f/5,75 12.5-inch and f/4.814.5-inch traveldobs to a spot across the street from the Film Center. By 7:30 p.m. we were set up and had had a low Saturn in the eyepieces of both telescopes. By 8:00 it was 20 degrees above the horizon and by 9:00 it was over 30 degrees up. The seeing was excellent (some times) and everyone could see 3 or 4 moons, Cassini division and even some banding features on the planet.

We had a huge turnout, since we were right next to a rock climbing wall thing, and just around the corner from a petting zoo. Lots of kids and parents strolled by and we often had lines of 10 or more waiting for Saturn. By 9:30 p.m. things quieted down to a trickle and the nighttime denizens were out in force, and all stopped by for a look. When one of the three films being shown at the film center let out we got a rush of visitors at the eyepiece.

This was the first time we had just shown Saturn. We usually wait for first quarter moon, or for a couple planets. Nnow that the planets are showing themselves in time for after-dinner strollers to see, we'll be out more often on the sidewalk.

If you'd like to know when the sidewalk astronomers will be out and about we have a hotline (415) 289-2007 and an email astro-event mailing list. Mailing list, archives and more here:

http://www.sfsidewalkastronomers.org/