Astronomy

Third order of business:

There is going to be a Solar Eclipse on Monday.  That is August 21.  For the Central Coast of CA, it will start shortly before 9AM and last to just before noon.

Disclaimer: Do Not Look Directly At The Sun With Unprotected Eyes.

There are a variety of glasses and filters you can get to protect your eyes from the Sun.  Please check carefully before purchasing, buy from a reputable retailer.

NASA has a few sites to get more info about the eclipse:

https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/

Prepare for the eclipse:

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/preparing-for-the-august-2017-total-solar-eclipse

Wikipedia article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_August_21,_2017

National Geographic:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/06/total-solar-eclipse-august-how-watch-science/

This eclipse is noteworthy because the path of totality (where the Moon fully covers the Sun) goes from the Pacific coast (near Salem, OR) to the Atlantic coast (near Charleston, NC).  The path of totality is about 70 miles wide, the larger, partial eclipse cover the entire North American continent and extend down to South America (from  and across to Greenland.

I will be using an old pair of binoculars that will project the image on a white three ring binder.  I've used this setup previously for an eclipse and the Venus transit (with a telescope) in 2012.

Enjoy the show that our Solar System puts on, and be safe.  As long as the fog rolls out, we should get to see about 60-70% eclipse.  I'd love it if all y'all took pictures and emailed me.

Also, look for Saturn (where the Cassini probe is ending a 20 year mission, final orbit in September), Jupiter (where the Juno probe is taking closeups of the Great Red Spot).

https://www.space.com/16149-night-sky.html

http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/astronomy/nightsky/