ASTRONOMY UPDATE (25 June 2013)
Dennis Mammana
Make plans now to spend the second weekend in August in San Diego’s East County for some great stargazing and Perseid meteor shower events! See 04, 05 and 06 below, and make your reservations now… this is one of the most popular weekends of the year!
Fun activities & events…
01) Vandenberg AFB rocket launch (June 26)
02) Royal Astronomical Society of Canada GA (June 27-30)
03) Southern California Astronomy Expo (July 13)
04) Julian Starfest (August 9-12)
05) “Rain of Fire” Perseid meteor shower star party (August 10/11)
06) Perseid meteor shower Celestial Overnight (August 11/12)
On the web…
07) Profile of yours truly in the May issue of “Astronomy Magazine”
08) Check out my recent night sky photos!
09) Subscribe FREE to my “Stargazers” column
Come along with me, I’m on my way to a star!
10) Africa total solar eclipse… filling fast! (Oct 31-Nov 12)
11) Join me for some arctic northern lights (Feb 28 – Mar 6 and Mar 6-12)
12) Other Cosmic Adventures…
Follow my celestial antics…
13) Keep up with me on Facebook
14) Bloggin’ across the cosmos…
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01) Vandenberg AFB rocket launch tonight (June 26)
Given clear skies and bit of luck, observers over a wide area of the
southwestern U.S. and Baja California may be
able to see some portion of Wednesday's offshore NASA satellite launch. Launch is targeted for 7:27:34 p.m. PDT during a launch window that
extends from 7:27 to 7:32 p.m. See newsletter
(from Monday, June 24) for more
details!
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02) Royal
Astronomical Society of Canada
GA (June 27-30)
I'm an invited speaker at this year's Royal Astronomical Society of Canada General Assembly in Thunder Bay, Ontario this coming week. If you're in the area I hope you'll stop by to see me... if not, be sure to follow my journey on Facebook and Twitter (see 08) https://www.rasc.ca/events/home
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03) Southern California Astronomy Expo (July 13)
Join the fun all day long at the SCAE Astronomy Expo on Saturday, July 13 in Oceanside, CA! Almost 40 different astronomy product manufacturers, organizations, and clubs will be at OPT’s beautiful showroom location to show off their latest creations and talk to you about your wildest astronomy dreams. Whether you are new to the hobby or a seasoned amateur astronomer, you’ll see and learn something new at SCAE! http://www.optscae.com/
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04) Julian Starfest (August 9-11)
Fun lectures, great food, astronomy exhibitors and telescope stargazing
with amateur astronomers from the San Diego Astronomy Association—what a
fun time for all under the dark skies of beautiful Julian, CA
and the Menghini Winery.
And, if you’d like to learn the basics of
photographing the Milky Way and that
weekend’s Perseid meteor shower, be sure to join me for my workshop on
June 9!
http://www.julianstarfest.com
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05) “Rain of Fire” Perseid meteor shower star party (August 10/11)
The Perseids are coming! The Perseids are coming! One of the best meteor showers of the year is
coming, so make your plans now to join me for this exciting event—dinner,
lecture and stargazing until dawn!
This terrific package at the
Borrego Springs Resort includes: one night deluxe accommodations, buffet
dinner, indoor slide program
followed by telescope viewing of the heavens above California’s first and
only International Dark Sky Community (weather permitting, of course) with expert amateur astronomers.
Non-hotel packages are also available.
For more information and
reservations, please call toll-free 888.826.7734. Availability is
limited, so don’t delay! http://www.borregospringsresort.com
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06) Perseid meteor shower Clestial Overnight (August 11/12)
Join me for our exciting Perseid meteor shower Celestial Overnight campout on August 11/12, and find out why Borrego Springs has been designated as California's first (and only) official International Dark Sky Community and one of top ten great places for stargazing by USA Today (http://is.gd/SuxrW1).
Weekend includes a stirring excursion through the rugged Borrego Badlands in open-air jeeps and former military vehicles, a mouth-watering chuck wagon dinner, all camping gear, a full breakfast the next morning and more. All you need to bring is a pillow and a sense of adventure! For more information or reservations, call Joe Raffetto toll-free at 866.6.EXPLORE or 760.767.1232, or visit http://www.californiaoverland.com.
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07) Profile of yours truly in the May issue of Astronomy Magazine
Curious about what makes me tick? Most are... :) Read all about me and my work in this six-page story in the May issue of "Astronomy" Magazine! http://www.dennismammana.com/AstroMagMay2013.pdf
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09) Check out my recent night sky photos!
What better place to photograph the night sky than Southern
California. These are my most recent efforts—most from the
past few weeks and one from nine years ago that I just
got around to processing! Hope you
enjoy!
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.598259043528842.1073741836.114660095222075&type=1
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08) Subscribe FREE to my “Stargazers” column
Keep up with the starry
heavens in my weekly column, now in its 21st consecutive year. And remember, you
can subscribe free to the column via e-mail or RSS
feed… just click the appropriate box at the bottom of the column to do
so. Or if
you’re more “analog” than digital, click the box to let your
local newspaper editor know you’d like them to carry it. http://www.creators.com/lifestylefeatures/astronomy/stargazers.html
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10) Africa
total solar eclipse tour (Oct. 31
– Nov. 12)
If you've never experienced a total
solar eclipse―and believe me, you'd know if you have―this is one bucket list item you don't want to put
off! Join me as we journey to west Africa to
explore the ancient and exotic lands of Gabon
and Morocco,
and experience one of nature's most breathtaking sky phenomena. But you’ll
need to book soon… only four spaces remain! http://melitatrips.com/destinations/2013/africa/africa.html
Or, enjoy the eclipse with my colleague Rich Talcott, Senior Editor of Astronomy Magazine,
on a fantastic safari in the Great Rift Valley of Kenya! http://melitatrips.com/destinations/2013/kenya/kenya.html
For more information on
both exciting journeys, call 877.707.7827
toll-free, or visit the links above. And be sure to mention my name to
receive top priority!
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11) Join me for some arctic northern lights (Feb 28 – Mar 6 & Mar 6-12)
I know you’ve been putting it off, but
we’re now at solar max—the peak of the sun’s activity
cycle—and the northern lights are dancing like they
haven’t for years. (By the way,
the next solar max won’t come until at least
2024!)
Join me for a truly fun journey to Fairbanks,
Alaska, the Aurora Capital of the
World, and marvel first-hand at Nature’s greatest light show! I’ll be
leading two tours next year: one with the dark of the moon and one with some
moonlight. But
don’t wait too long… both will fill up quickly! http://melitatrips.com/destinations/2014/alaska/alaska2014.html
Or, you could join my colleague “Astronomy Magazine”
Contributing Editor and comet discoverer David Levy for a great northern lights
trip to Iceland—one of the most beautiful and magical spots on
Earth—from March 4-11,
2014. http://melitatrips.com/destinations/2014/iceland/iceland.html
For more information on
all exciting journeys, call 877.707.7827
toll-free, or visit the link above. And be sure to mention my name to
receive top priority!
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12) Other Cosmic Adventures…
While I’d love to have you join me on my cosmic
adventures—we always have such great fun—many other
astronomically-related travel options are also available. MWT
Associates is one of the best tour companies who specializes in astronomical
travel, and features a stable of some of the world’s finest and most
popular lecturers. I’m honored to have been part
of this “stellar” team for the past 19 years, and I encourage you
to check out which other exciting celestial programs might interest you: http://www.melitatrips.com
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13) Keep up with me on Facebook and Twitter
To receive more immediate details about celestial events, new
photographs, cool astronomical discoveries and discussion (if you so
choose)—more than I can possibly include in this newsletter—I hope
you’ll join the increasing number of fans that “like” my
official Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/DennisMammana. Just look at the top near my name and click
the “Like” button; that’s it! And if you’re
not a Facebook member, you can still visit and check out my postings—but
you won’t be able to post comments or receive news as I post it.
Or keep up in even more real-time with my Twitter feed
@dennismammana.
Just go to https://twitter.com/dennismammana
and click “Follow”.
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14) Bloggin’ across the cosmos…
Lots of things to write about… so I’ll hope you’ll check out my blog at http://dennismammana.blogspot.com. And, in the meantime I’d like to invite your thoughts on what you’d be most interested in reading about. Just drop me a note at mam...@skyscapes.com.
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DENNIS MAMMANA (TWAN)
DennisMammana.com