I am constantly in a state of delight living in Los Angeles.  We have glorious weather, groovy people to hang with, an open minded populace and pretty much the completely fun urban experience.

Still, it’s nice to get off the grid sometimes.  In fact, I’ve decided that about once a week, I need a sojourn into the wild to keep my sanity intact. So this past weekend, Dan the man and I packed up some supplies and hit the road to Joshua Tree National Park for a little stargazing.

We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect weekend.  New Moon situation, so the starlight was blasting in full force.  Warm, balmy weather, so even at that high altitude it only got nippy at 4am or so.  But, oh!  The STARS!!!!! We discovered a whole new universe.. or many of them, exploding up there.  Seriously, there were more meteor showers than I could ever count. Either that or we have some crazy UFO’s doing light shows up there.

You couldn’t look up for more than a minute before catching a cascade of swirling light.  And the cool part…. on new moon weekends, they have actual star parties in Joshua Tree.  Astronomy societies come up there with big ass telescopes, and other ardent star gazers contribute their scopes.  So everyone parties and looks at the amazing sky.  But even without the telescopes it’s awesome!  I highly recommend checking it out.  It’s completely free (okay, there’s a $15 admittance fee to the park, but well worth it) and it’s ridiculously beautiful.  And romantic.  And calming.  And the dawn is absolutely stunning too!  Just sayin’.  We are lucky to live in LA next to such a treasure.

Really early rendering of attack on the moon.

Have a decent sized telescope? Turn it toward the moon Friday morning at about 4:30am, when NASA will crash a pair of orbiters into the south pole, and you may be able to see the resulting plumes of dust.

The NASA exercise is intended to determine is water is contained in the moon’s soil.

Of course, Griffith Park Observatory will be closed at that hour. Because, y’know, its so darn early.

No Public Viewing of Moon Impact from Observatory
NASA’s LCROSS mission, searching for water ice, will culminate with two lunar impacts near the Moon’s south pole at approximately 4:30 a.m. PDT on Friday, October 9. The impacts may be visible with a telescope. However, due to the very early hour, neither Griffith Park nor the Observatory will be open for public viewing.

The attack on the moon will also be televised.

As of right this moment the Mount Wilson Observatory is still standing though flames are very close and people are extremely worried. This webcam shows the Observatory and surrounding areas (though the cam is going down frequently due to overloaded servers) which as you can see are fairly flame covered. As you probably know the MWO is over 100 years old and extremely important in the history of Astronomy including much of the observations and discussion that formulated the Big Bang theory. On Twitter, Xeni Jardin has been posting constant updates on this specific structure and the fires nearby. Keeping my fingers crossed.

From Museum of Jurassic Technology

Mount Wilson Road closed today at 6 a.m. after U.S. Forest Service authorities determined that the roaring fires could reach the mountain’s peak. Several radio towers for local broadcast outlets, as well as the historic Mt. Wilson Observatory, sit atop the 5,710-foot peak. The fate of the over-a-century-old facility is uncertain, but the importance of the observatory is undeniable. Designed by turn of the 19th century astronomer George Hale, who coined the term “astrophysics,” the Observatory realigned the way people viewed mankind as it related to the universe. Like the heliocentric model of Copernicus, which obliterated the concept of an Earth-centered universe, Hale’s experiments opened up the aperture on a more complex existence, where humans were perhaps as insignificant as tiny stars adrift in night sky. For some, astronomy struck at the heart of religion, while for others, gazing starward offered an ultimate advance in the search for God. The Museum of Jurassic Technology displays the epistemological questions, theories of God’s location, and Martian dreams sent on hotel stationery, postcards, and sloppily typed letters to Hale and the astronomers of the Observatory in the exhibit, No One May Ever Have The Same Knowledge Again: Letters to Mount Wilson Observatory.

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I love stars!  One of the best nights I’ve ever had was in Joshua Tree last year when my love Dan and I hiked out into the desert, laid down and watched all the stars and planets flying around.  It was a real Star Party…

Tonight, we’ve got a treat because from around midnight til 5am, there’s a blast of meteors, some theorize there will be one every minute or so.  Of course, we live in a dense, overlit city, so it may be hard to catch a lot of them… and there’s a pretty bright moon tonight.

Nevertheless, I for one, will be laying out under the stars to catch some summer starlight showers.  I may even cruise over to Malibu… or out into the wilds of Tujunga to try and get away from the city light.  And if you are reading this and know of someplace to get to that’s not to far that might be shielded from our bright LA light… lay it on us!

Tomorrow morning (3 – 4am!) is the closest approach that Comet Lulin will be making to earth. It may be tough to see in our very bright city, but perhaps with a telescope or binoculars you could get lucky. (Oh and if it’s not pouring rain…) 

Blast past the jump for the map of the night sky and Lulin’s position in it. Also click here for Nasa’s Green Comet page.

If you lays eyes on it, please come back and comment!

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Photo by amateur astronomer Jack Newton from his backyard in Arizona

On Monday February 16 and again on Tuesday February 24, if you are very lucky, there are no clouds and you are up before dawn (I’m looking at you Will Campbell), you may be able to see the Green Comet in the southwest sky. A telescope and/or binoculars might be a big help.

Comet Lulin (or Comet C/2007 N3 for you sticklers), discovered in 2007 by 19 year old student Quanzhi Ye in Taiwan, is green and might not be quite visible to the naked eye and there is a chance the bright LA basin will make it even harder to detect, but to see a green comet? Might be worth a go.

Read more about on Nasa’s Green Comet page.

Jump past the comet’s tail to see sky maps for both those pre-dawns.

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Yep, I’m one of that certain percentage of us Los Angies who get antsy after more than a day or two of stuff in the air that occludes our ready visual access to other stuff up there — like the sun and blue sky and planets and stars and natural orbiting satellites…

… like the moon, for example.

Thus it was with shock and relief that I looked out my window this pre-dawn and grabbed my cam to debunk the rumors in my head that the moon had gone missing since Thursday and prove that in fact it is still up there in its usual place and shining like it was making up for lost time.

Despite re-opening in late 2006 after nearly five years of renovations and additions, Griffith Observatory remains one of LA’s relatively off-the-radar attractions, even though parking and admission is free. (The planetarium shows charge admission but they aren’t essential for an enjoyable visit.) I ride my bike up Vermont Canyon a few times a week (as part of my perpetual “health kick,” as the bf calls it) and the sparse crowds there always surprise me, especially on weekends.

Built in the early 1930s as a gift from silver mine magnate Griffith J. Griffith, the facility opened in 1935. The surrounding park was also given to the city of Los Angeles by Griffith. He was clear about it being a gift to the public, saying, “I consider it my obligation to make Los Angeles a happy, cleaner, and finer city. I wish to pay my debt of duty in this way to the community in which I have prospered.” Good words to ponder in this age of corporate jets and million-dollar office renovations by the banking sector.  (more…)

Twitter Bird on Phoenix Lander

The gang at the Jet Propulsion Lab who tweet for the MarsPhoenix (and other awesome space objects) are arranging a Tweetup at JPL in Pasadena on Wednesday January 21 from 5:00 to 7:30pm.  You must register starting at 10am tomorrow morning (January 9) be able to go. To register you need to click on this page. (OMG I am so excited about this that I can barely type this post!)

There will only be room for 150 people so have your link open and ready to sign up! From the main information page:

This Tweetup is an opportunity to meet and speak with the JPL staff, scientists, and engineers behind the tweets of 

@CassiniSaturn, @MarsPhoenix, @MarsRovers, @MarsScienceLab, @EarthVitalSigns,@PlanetQuest and more. Plus, you’ll meet and mingle with other space-exploration-minded tweeps. 

The evening will include a one-hour “meet and greet” from 5 to 6 p.m., followed by a tour of JPL. On the tour, you’ll visit the Spacecraft Assembly Facility (where @MarsScienceLab is under construction) and the mission control area of NASA’s Deep Space Network. You’ll also see full-scale models of @MarsPhoenix and @MarsRovers and the 11-foot-tall half-scale model of @CassiniSaturn . 

What an amazing opportunity for any and all science and space geeks like me. See you there!