Davis Astronomy Club

Evening Planet Parade and Total Lunar Eclipse!

Saturday, February 28 | 6:00pm - 9:00pm
Tuesday, March 3 | 2:00am - 5:00am

Explorit Science Center | 3141 5th Street, Davis

by Vinita Domier | [email protected]
NASA Solar System Ambassador

Everyone is invited to a regular Davis Astronomy Club evening meeting on Saturday, February 28, starting at 6pm, and a special Davis Astronomy Club middle-of-the-night lunar eclipse viewing on Tuesday, March 3, between 2am-5am. Both meetings are free, open to all ages, and will be held at the Explorit Science Center (3141 5th Street) and the Mace Ranch Park parking lot in Davis.

On Saturday, February 28, we will have an indoor presentation about the upcoming total lunar eclipse, followed by a star party outdoors to look at the wonders of the winter night sky. Planets Mercury, Venus, and Saturn will be visible low in the western sky around sunset. Planet Jupiter, and its biggest moons, will be visible overhead, and the nearly full-phase Earth’s Moon will be visible in the eastern sky.

Lunar eclipses occur when the Sun, the Earth, and the full-phase Moon, in that order, line up in space. A part or the entire Moon, now in the Earth’s shadow, is obscured as it is cut off from the direct light from the Sun. Solar eclipses occur when the Sun, the new-phase Moon, and the Earth, in that order, line up in space. The shadow of the Moon then falls on a region of the Earth, obscuring part or all of Sun.

Eclipses do not occur at every new and full Moon because the Moon does not orbit the Earth in the same plane as the Earth orbits the Sun. There are two periods, about six months apart, when these three solar system bodies - the Sun, Earth, and Moon - can align to produce the celestial phenomena of lunar and solar eclipses.

In the predawn hours on Tuesday, March 3, viewers in North America can witness the spectacle of a total lunar eclipse. The partial lunar eclipse will begin at 1:50am, totality will be between 3:04am and 4:02am, and the eclipse will end at 5:15am. Totality, when the full Moon is entirely in the Earth’s dark shadow, will last for 58 minutes.

Join the Davis Astronomy Club for the special total lunar eclipse viewing, weather permitting, at Davis’s Mace Ranch Park parking lot on Tuesday, March 3 from 2am-5am. Note that although no special equipment is needed to view a lunar eclipse, we will have telescopes and binoculars to look at the eclipsing Moon in detail.

For more information about this event, please contact Vinita Domier at [email protected].

For more information about the Davis Astronomy Club, please visit:
https://www.explorit.org/astronomy-club

Perseid Meteor Shower Public Viewing and Star Party
Tuesday Night, August 12th, 8pm - 1am
Yolo County Grasslands Regional Park

by Vinita Domier
NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador

Davis Astronomy Club and Explorit Science Center invite everyone to the free public viewing of the annual Perseid Meteor Shower on the evening of Tuesday, August 12, from 8pm - 1am at Grasslands Regional Park (30475 CR 104, 3.8 miles south of Davis) at the crossing of CR104 (Mace Blvd) & Tremont Rd. The viewing area is at the eastern edge of the park (bypass the first parking lots near the park entrance, follow the road to where it turns left, and park on the gravel next to the grassy viewing area.)

The Perseid Meteor Shower consistently provides good viewing of “shooting stars” during warm summer nights for Northern observers from mid-July to late August, with peak activity occurring this year around August 12 - 13 when 60 – 100 meteors per hour could be seen under ideal viewing conditions of dark skies and the Moon is below the horizon. Many of the meteors of this particular shower streak across the sky in long colorful trails.

No special equipment is needed to enjoy the Perseids. All you need to watch these fireworks in the sky are clear dark skies with an unobstructed view from horizon to horizon. Lie down on a reclining chair or blanket, point your toes north-eastward, and look up in all directions. Also bring insect repellent and a red-filtered light or a flashlight in a paper bag, and make sure to keep warm.

A meteor shower occurs when the orbiting Earth passes through the stream of debris left in the wake of a comet after it has made its close approach to the Sun. The heat of the Sun causes some of the icy comet's frozen gases to vaporize, releasing dust particles and tiny rocky fragments embedded in the comet. These meteoroid particles continue to orbit the Sun in the same orbit as the parent comet. When the Earth, in its annual orbit around the Sun, goes through the point in space where its orbit and the comet's orbit intersect, it results in a meteor shower that repeats every year. The Perseid Meteor Shower is attributed to the periodic Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle (orbital period of 133 years.)

The comet's dust particles and rocky fragments that enter Earth's atmosphere, known as meteors, do so at great velocities causing the gases in the upper atmosphere to glow due to friction resulting in meteor streaks or "shooting stars". The glowing streaks can appear anywhere in the sky, however, their tails seem to emanate from a certain region or constellation in the sky. The August meteor shower is named the Perseid Meteor Shower as it seems to radiate from the Perseus Constellation region of the sky.

The optimal time to observe the most number of meteors per hour is between after midnight and before sunrise as then the viewer is on the side of the Earth that is encountering the meteors head-on. This year, however, moonlight from the waning gibbous Moon will obscure some of the fainter meteor sightings during this time interval as it will be rising around 10pm. So the recommendation is to view this year's meteor shower between 8pm and 1am.

For more information please contact Vinita Domier at [email protected].

Davis Astronomy Club - Perseid Meteor Shower event info
Cost: free; all ages welcome
Date: Tuesday evening, Aug 12, from 8 pm - 1 am
Location: Yolo County Grasslands Regional Park - Sac Valley Soaring Society (SVSS) club field at the eastern edge of the park
Address: 30475 CR 104 (Mace Blvd), Davis, CA 95618 (Lat: 38.49694, Long.-121.69111)
Driving directions: From I-80 take Mace Blvd south. At the city limits, Mace Blvd becomes County Road 104. The park entrance is at the intersection of County Road 104 and Tremont Rd. The distance from I-80 to the park is 3.8 miles. (Please see map below)
Websites: https://www.yolocounty.gov/government/general-government-departments/parks/parks-information/grasslands-regional-park; http://www.svss.org/flying-site.html