Where:

Frosty Drew Observatory

When:

Friday October 21, 2016 CLOSED

Cost:

$1 Suggested Donation per Person

Tonight is Stargazing Night at Frosty Drew Observatory and the forecast is looking completely dismal. We can expect rain, clouds, and fog all night long. Forecasts like this offer practically no chance of viewing the night sky. As a result, we will keep the Observatory and Sky Theatre closed tonight. This is quite unfortunate as the third quarter Moon does not rise until 11:08 p.m. and would have offered up fabulous views of the night sky. We will open the Observatory next on Friday, October 28, 2016 for our annual Spooky Views Halloween event starting at 6:30 pm. Until then, take any clear sky opportunity to step out and catch a view of the departing summertime constellations and sneak a peek at the rising wintertime constellations, including Orion.

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Weekly Happenings
Scott MacNeill

If you are in the Providence, RI area tonight (Friday, October 21), be sure to stop in at Brown University’s Ladd Observatory to take part in the 125 year anniversary celebration. Though weather will likely keep their telescopes closed, tours of the fabulous 125 year old 12” refractor telescope will be available. Cloudy nights are the best time to catch a mind-blowing view of the fabulous telescope and all the precision of the period that makes it rock. Additionally, there will be cake for all that visit! The historic Ladd Observatory serves as a fabulous time capsule of early 20th century astronomy and has hosted an impressive list of notable individuals, including H. P. Lovecraft. So stop in, grab a sweet slice, and check out a truly historic Rhode Island Observatory and celebrate 125 years of astronomy at Brown University's Ladd Observatory, tonight.

On Wednesday, October 19th, the NASA Juno spacecraft, which is in orbit around Jupiter, was scheduled to perform its second close flyby of the gas giant. Though the flyby happened, the spacecraft dropped into safe mode for the duration of the flyby. Safe mode is what happens when Juno’s onboard computer detects an anomaly with the spacecraft, resulting in all non-essentially spacecraft systems being disabled until Earth bound team members can assess what is happening. Communications have been restored with Juno and flight software diagnostics are being run, which is good, though all science instruments were disabled during the flyby making for no data collection or images. Additionally, a non-related issue with Juno’s propulsion system has delayed a planned burn that would have reduced Juno’s orbit to a 14 day period from the current 53.4 day period. Though Juno is battling with it’s high radiation life style, the mission is still doing amazing, with much analysis continuing on the data sets returned during the August 27th close flyby. The next close flyby is scheduled for December 11th with all science instruments activated and rocking. Note, that all images collected by JunoCam are posted in raw format to the Juno website for citizen scientists to grab, process, and discover. The JunoCam team at NASA does not have an image processing group, that job is up to you citizen scientist! If you have any image processing skills, visit the JunoCam website, browse the raw image collection and get to work!

Save the Date:
Spooky Views - Friday, October 28, 2016 at 6:30 p.m.
Stop in for a night of Stargazing with a Halloween theme. The Observatory will dressed up in spooky décor and candy will be available for all. In the telescope, we will showcase planetary nebula - the ghostly clouds of dying stars. So dig out that old costume, put on your mask and come out to the creepy woodlands of Ninigret Park to celebrate the Eve of All Hallows.

-Scott