EVENTS CALENDAROctober 1 Full Harvest Moon and Chinese Moon Festival October 2 The Moon and Mars Pair Up October 6 Mars Closest To The Earth October 7-10 Draconid Meteor Showers After Dark October 12-15 Moon and Venus Together before Sunrise October 16 New Moon Supermoon October 20-22 Orionid Meteor Shower (best at late night or before dawn) October 21-23 Moon Near Jupiter and Saturn October 31 Blue Moon and Red Mars on Halloween THE NIGHT SKYOctober is a FABULOUS month for sky watching. It begins (October 1st) with the full harvest moon that many people living in China celebrate with delicious mooncakes. The next night (October 2nd) the moon pairs up with Mars during a time when Mars is especially bright because it is the closest it will be to the Earth for 15 years (October 6th). The moon also gives us amazing views as it meets up with Venus in the morning (October 12th - 16th) and then later in the month with Jupiter and Saturn in the evening (October 21st - 23rd). The month ends on Halloween (October 31st) with a Blue Moon - it is not really the color blue. It is called a blue moon whenever there are two full moons in a month. That is what gives us the expression "every once in a blue moon." In addition to a full moon on Halloween it is again pairing with red Mars. So enjoy this special Halloween sky. In addition to the exciting view of the moon pairing with different planets, October offers two meteor showers. The first the Draconids originate from the direction of the constellation Draco (October 7th - 10th). It is a good one to watch for because you don't have to stay up so late. The meteors are visible after dark. The Orionid Meteor Shower originates from the direction of the constellation Orion (October 20th - 22nd). It will be harder to see as it is usually most active after midnight, but sometimes if you are an early riser you can catch a view of some meteors before sun-up. SCIENCE AT CHARTERSome schools have decided that teaching science online is too hard, so they aren't teaching science right now. Luckily your teachers and school have decided science is too important to skip. All students are receiving science kits to do at home. In addition there are online lessons to go with the kits. Be sure to thank Karen for helping assemble these kits. She and I have put together nearly a thousand kits so far. In addition, Karen and I lead science chats for grades 4-6. If you don't know Karen she was a geologist for many years and a math aid at Charter for the last few years. The science chats are an opportunity for students to meet in small groups to share ideas. Students can get the most out of the science chats by completing the activity in the kit and the online lesson assigned the week before their scheduled science chat. During science chats students share their discoveries and plan for future experiments together.
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Leise Thomason-BA Biology Brown University Categories |