Planetarium Director: Ed Megill

NEWS & UPCOMING EVENTS

05/27/08

The Last Quarter Moon occurs at 7:57 PM PDST.

06/3/08

The New Moon occurs at 12:23 PM PDST.

06/10/08

The First Quarter Moon occurs at 8:04 AM PDST.

06/18/08

The Full Moon occurs at 10:30 AM PDST.

06/20/08

The Summer solstice occurs today at 5:00 PM PDST. "Sol" refers to the Sun and "stice" means to stand still. Each day before the Summer Solstice the Sun appears a little higher in the sky at noon. The Sun’s altitude at Noon on the Summer Solstice, as seen from Sonoma County, is 75 degrees above the southern horizon. It also rises some 30 degree North of East and sets some 30 degrees North of West. This results in the Sun being above the horizon for 14.5 hours and below for 9.5 hours giving Sonoma County its long warm summer days. After the Summer Solstice the Sun appears a little lower in the noon-day sky each day and rises & sets further South until the Winter solstice

06/18/08

The Last Quarter Moon occurs at 5:10 AM PDST.

07/2/08

The New Moon occurs at 7:19 PM PDST.

07/9/08

The First Quarter Moon occurs at 9:35 PM PDST.

07/18/08

The Full Moon occurs at 12:59 AM PDST.

07/25/08

The Last Quarter Moon occurs at 11:42 AM PDST.

08/1/08

The New Moon occurs at 3:12 AM PDST.

08/8/08

The First Quarter Moon occurs at 1:20 PM PDST.

08/12/08

Late tonight (around 3:00 AM PDST August 13th) the Perseid meteor shower should peak. This year’s peak occurs 4 days after August’s first Quarter Moon. Therefore, the Gibbous Moon sets about the time of the expected peak, this is not good news for meteor shower observers. We may expect to see only the brighter of the possible 75 meteors per hour often observed during this display. Each year at this time the Perseid meteor shower results from planet Earth crashing through the debris from comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. As the small pieces of debris slam into Earth’s upper atmosphere and burn up, they cause the atmosphere to fluoresce and we see a streak of light called a meteor.

08/16/08

The Full Moon occurs at 2:16 PM PDST.

08/23/08

The Last Quarter Moon occurs at 4:49 PM PDST.

08/30/08

The New Moon occurs at 12:58 PM PDST.