Credit: Sky and Telescope

There will be a Supermoon December 3 and 4. A supermoon is a new or full moon that comes close to Earth in its elliptical orbit; this is called a Lunar Perigee.
The full moon comes on December 3 and lunar perigee takes place on December 4.
The best time to observe the supermoon is when the moon is near the horizon during either moonrise or moonset:
Sunday Morning, Dec. 3 –  Moonset — 6:46am
Sunday Evening, Dec. 3 –  Moonrise — 6:18pm
Monday Morning, Dec. 4 – Moonset — 7:56am
Monday Evening, Dec. 4 – Moonrise — 7:00pm

The Universe is under no obligation to make sense to you — Neil deGrasse Tyson

NASA: A Supermoon Trilogy

The eclipse is August 21, 2017 (see below for times).

A solar eclipse in which the moon passes between the sun and us.  Those of us in California will see a partial eclipse.  If you wish to see a total eclipse, head on up to Salem, Oregon.

Never look directly at the sun without appropriate eye protection. One way to safely view an eclipse of the sun including direct viewing is with eclipse glasses. Eclipse glasses are available from Amazon from about $8.00 to $18.00; also from Walmart online.

Partial eclipse in San Jose begins 9:01 am and ends 11:38 am with maximum 10:15 am.
Total eclipse in Salem, Oregon begins 9:05 am and ends 11:37 am with maximum 10:18 am.

Check out NASA’s Eyes Eclipse 2017 Web Application. “In this interactive, web-based 3D simulation, you can click anywhere on the Earth to preview your view of the August 21st, 2017 total eclipse.” On the right under Explore the 2017 Solar Eclipse click Launch Interactive.

Watch online with NASA’s Eclipse Live Streaming. <— !

On May 5 and 6 (peak), 2017 before dawn, is the Eta Aquariids meteor shower.

The Eta Aquariids meteor shower is debris from Halley’s Comet.

The best time to watch these meteors is in the early morning hours, before the beginning of morning twilight (see below).

Give yourself at least an hour of viewing time for watching as there will be lulls. Remember that it may take up to 20 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the dark.

Some meteors may fly in the dark hour before dawn for a few days before and after May 5/6.

May 4 — morning twilight: 4:31 AM
May 5 — morning twilight: 4:29 AM
May 6 — morning twilight: 4:28 AM
May 7 — morning twilight: 4:26 AM

If you wish to make an apple pie truly from scratch, you must first invent the universe. — Carl Sagan

Supermoons, most of us can’t detect the difference between a supermoon and a regular full moon, using just our eyes. Finely tuned instruments or composite images do show that a supermoon is indeed closer to Earth and thus bigger than an ordinary full moon. Therefore, if we can’t see that a supermoon actually appears larger in the sky, we notice the increased brightness of the supermoon.
Supermoons bring the highest and lowest tides, they follow the date of full moon by a day or two.

The supermoon event happens Sunday November 13 and Monday the 14th.
The best time to observe the supermoon is when the moon is near the horizon during either moonrise or moonset; allegedly, Monday is best. …
Sunday Evening, Nov. 13 –  Moonrise – 4:52pm
Monday Morning, Nov. 14 – Moonset – 5:32am
Monday Evening, Nov. 14 – Moonrise – 5:40pm
Tuesday Morning, Nov. 15 – Moonset – 7:56am

In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move. — Douglas Adams

Wednesday, May 11, Stephen Kane, Ph.D., will discuss Finding a New Earth: Exoplanets and the Habitable Zone, an illustrated, non-technical lecture in the Smithwick Theatre at Foothill College.

A key to finding a new Earth will be to identify rocky planets that occupy the Habitable Zone of their stars.

Dr. Kane has been researching planets around other stars for more than 20 years and has discovered and characterized hundreds of exoplanets.

Dr. Kane is professor of astrophysics at San Francisco State University (SFSU). He is also the chairman of the Kepler Mission Habitable Zone Working Group and the director of the SFSU Planetary Research Laboratory.

The lecture is free, but there is a charge of $3 for parking on campus and exact change is appreciated.

Smithwick Theater at Foothill College
12345 S El Monte Ave, Los Altos, 94022
May 11, 2016
7:00 p.m.

Admission: Free
Parking $3.00

Wednesday, March 2, 2016, at 7:00 pm, Dr. Jeff Moore (Research Scientist at NASA Ames Research Center) will give a free, illustrated, non-technical talk on: Report from the Planetary Frontier: The Latest from New Horizons at Pluto in the Smithwick Theater at Foothill College.

On July 14, 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft flew above the surface of Pluto and sent back images of the planet and its largest moon Charon.

Dr. Moore will show the latest photos and fill us in on the current thinking among the New Horizons team members about Pluto and its five moons.

The lecture is free, but there is a charge of $3 for parking on campus and exact change is appreciated.

Smithwick Theater at Foothill College
12345 S El Monte Ave, Los Altos, 94022

Admission: Free
Parking $3.00

Harvard University astronomer Robert Kirshner, Ph.D., will
discuss Einstein’s Blunder Undone: The Runaway Universe, an illustrated, non-technical lecture Wednesday, Nov. 11, at 7 p.m. in the Smithwick Theatre at Foothill College. Admission is free; however, seating is first come, first served.

Einstein invented a new theory of gravity called “General Relativity” and applied it to the study of the universe as a whole. He introduced the Cosmological Constant, a factor that would guarantee the entire universe itself was static—neither expanding nor collapsing. Astronomers showed the universe was not static at all, but expanding, and Einstein banished his constant, even calling it his greatest blunder.

Dr. Kirshner will show the methods used to discover the cosmic acceleration and present the evidence that we live in a universe that is only 4 percent matter like the atoms of the periodic table, with the balance divided between dark energy, speeding up the universe, and equally mysterious dark matter, drawing things together.

Dr. Kirshner has been a leader in the use of supernova explosions to chart the expansion history (including the acceleration) of the universe. He is the author of The Extravagant Universe: Exploding Stars, Dark Energy, and the Accelerating Universe.

Parking lots 1, 7 and 8 provide stair and no-stair access to the theatre. Visitors must purchase a parking permit for $3 from dispensers in student parking lots. Dispensers accept credit/debit cards, as well as one-dollar bills. Campus Map (PDF).

Smithwick Theatre
Foothill College
12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills, 94022
(650) 949-7888

November 11, 2015
7:00 p.m.

Admission: free
Parking: $3.00

Marc Rayman, Ph.D., the mission director for NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft, will discuss Encountering the First Dwarf Planet: The Dawn Mission to Ceres, a free, illustrated, non-technical lecture Wednesday, April 8, at 7:00 p.m. in the Smithwick Theatre at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills.

The Dawn Spacecraft is now in orbit around Ceres —the largest asteroid in the asteroid belt and also the first dwarf planet to be discovered. Ceres was discovered January 1,1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi of Italy. As big across as Texas, Ceres’ nearly spherical body has a differentiated interior – denser material at the core and lighter minerals near the surface.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the Dawn mission. It is the first NASA exploratory mission to use ion propulsion, which enabled it to enter and leave the orbit of multiple celestial bodies.
Ion propulsion is a technology that involves ionizing a gas to propel a craft. The gas xenon is given an electrical charge, or ionized. It is then electrically accelerated to a speed of about 30 km/second. When xenon ions are emitted at such high speed as exhaust from a spacecraft, they push the spacecraft in the opposite direction.

Dr. Rayman is both mission director and chief engineer for Dawn. He has worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory since 1986, designing instruments for space telescopes, Mars measurements, the search for planets around other stars and laser communications with spacecraft.

Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Arrive early to locate parking.

Parking lots 1, 7 and 8 provide stair and no-stair access to the Smithwick Theater. Visitors must purchase a parking permit for $3 from dispensers in student parking lots. Dispensers accept one-dollar bills and quarters; bring exact change.

Smithwick Theater, Foothill College
12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills
(650) 949-7888

Wednesday, April 8, 2015
7:00 pm

Admission: Free
Parking: $3.00

Wednesday, March 4, former NASA Astronaut Edward Tsang “Ed” Lu, Ph.D. will discuss The Sentinel Mission: Finding the Asteroid Headed for Earth, an illustrated, non-technical lecture at 7:00 p.m. in the Smithwick Theatre at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills.

Asteroids are the only natural disaster for which we have a technological solution. There are an estimated one million in our inner solar system, and the vast majority of the threatening ones are still undiscovered. In this non-technical talk, Dr. Lu will describe the threat, and discuss the Sentinel Mission, an orbiting telescope designed to detect and track asteroids that cross Earth’s orbit.

In 2013 an asteroid just 60 feet across exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk in Russia sending more than 1,700 people to seek medical attention, damaged more than 7,200 buildings and cost the city more than $33 million dollars in property damage.

As a NASA Astronaut, Ed Lu has flown three missions logging 206 days in space, to construct and live aboard the International Space Station. A graduate of Cornell, Dr. Lu earned a Ph.D. from Stanford.

Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Arrive early to locate parking.

Parking lots 1, 7 and 8 provide stair and no-stair access to the theatre. Visitors must purchase a parking permit for $3 from dispensers in student parking lots. Dispensers accept one-dollar bills and quarters; bring exact change.

Smithwick Theater, Foothill College
12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills

Wednesday, March 4, 2015
7:00 pm
Admission: Free
Parking: $3.00

Astronomer Chung-Pei Ma, PhD, of UC Berkeley, will discuss Monster Black Holes: What Lurks at the Centers of Galaxies, a free, illustrated, non-technical lecture, Wednesday, May 21, at 7 p.m. in the Smithwick Theatre at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills. The public is invited. Seating is first come, first served.

Black holes can grow to monstrous size, swallowing the mass of millions or billions of suns. Dr. Ma will describe recent discoveries of record-breaking black holes, each with a mass of 10 billion times the mass of the Sun. New evidence shows that these objects could be the dormant remnants of powerful “quasars” that existed in the young universe.

A cosmologist and astrophysicist, Dr. Ma’s research interests include the origin and large-scale structure of the universe, the formation and development of galaxies, and the growth of giant black holes. Her specialty areas include: theoretical cosmology; dark matter and energy; galaxy and structure formation; black holes; gravitational lensing; cosmic microwave background.

Parking lots 1, 7 and 8 provide stair and no-stair access to the Smithwick Theater. Visitors must purchase a parking permit for $3 from dispensers in student parking lots. Dispensers accept one-dollar bills and quarters; bring exact change.

Smithwick Theater, Foothill College
12345 El Monte Road
Los Altos Hills 94022
(650) 949-7888

Wednesday, May 21, 2014
7:00 pm

Admission: free
Parking: $3.00