EVENTS CALENDARDecember 2-4 Moon and Venus Together Before Dawn December 8 ,9, 10 Young Moon Near Saturn at Dusk December 12-13 Geminid Meteor Showers December 21 Winter Solstice and Charter Low Tide Exploration Friday 2 - 4 PM at Campus Point December 21 - December 25 LOW TIDES December 22 Full Moon December 31 Moon and 3 Planets Visible Before Sun-up Advanced Notice: Supermoon Lunar Eclipse January 20 SCIENCE AT CHARTERLOW TIDESCHARTER FAMILY TIDE POOL EXPLORATION: Charter families are invited to join me for a low tide exploration on Friday December 21 at 2 p.m. at Campus Point. I will have buckets and field guides for identifying tide pool creatures. I recommend wearing rain boots and a jacket. I will be there rain or shine. If you text or email me your plans to attend, I can be on the lookout for you. ([email protected] or 619-993-4339) This is not an official school sponsored event. You are responsible for keeping an eye on any children you bring - No part of their bodies should touch water unless you are watching them. Also please prepare them before you come for being gentle with all sea creatures. They may gently lift - not pry- creatures and place them in a bucket of sea water. After observing return the creatures to where they were found. DIRECTIONS: Exit Highway 101 northbound at Highway 217. Follow it to the end where it enters the UCSB gate. Go around the big circle and turn on Lagoon Rd. At the end of Lagoon Rd (before the signs that don't allow you to drive further) there is a large parking lot on your left. Read the sign by the pay machine- a few of the stalls are for beach access from 7:30am-5pm on weekdays. If you can't join us here are some other times that your family might want to enjoy the Low Tide. Sat 22 3:43 PM PST / -1.3 Sun 23 4:28 PM PST / -1.4 ft Mon 24 5:16 PM PST / -1.3 ft Tue 25 6:05 PM PST / -1.1 ft KING TIDESIn addition to exploring the beach during low tide it can also be interesting to view the beach during high tide or both -- to really see a difference. King Tides - the highest high tides- will be on December 22, 23 and January 20, 21. They will be in the mornings between 8 and 9 and are between plus 6.8 to 7.0 feet. If you plan to be at the beach on those mornings you can participate in a citizen science project by snapping a picture. The pictures will be used to show the potential changes due to sea level rise in the future. The California King Tide Project can be viewed here: www.coastal.ca.gov/kingtides/ Tide calendar can be viewed here: tides.mobilegeographics.com/calendar/month/5608.html?y=2019&m=1&d=1 THE NIGHT SKY THIS MONTHThis month begins with the young moon nearing Venus before dawn. With the late sunrises it won't be very hard to wake up in the dark and view Venus which is VERY bright now. It should make a lovely paring with the crescent moon. A few days later the moon can be seen near Saturn at Dusk. The month ends with Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus visible near the moon before sun-up. December 21 is the Winter Solstice - the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. This day is the Summer Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. In Santa Barbara our Winter Solstice has just under 10 hours of daylight. Equatorial regions such as Macapa, Brazil have 12 hours of sunlight all year. Extreme northern cities such as Rekyavik Iceland will only get about 4 hours of sunlight on the Winter Solstice and the North Pole won't have any daylight at all for many months. In Ushuaia Argentina which is very far south there will be over 17 hours of sunlight on December 21. The Winter Solstice has been an important day in many cultures. This article has pictures of five ancient sites that are aligned to the solstice and equinox. www.almanac.com/content/five-ancient-sites-aligned-solstice-and-equinox TRY THIS AT HOMEMake a sundial. In celebration of the Solstice make a sundial to keep track of how daylight changes over time. www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/kids/games-quizzes/sun/something_to_do.html www.kiwico.com/diy/Science-Projects-for-Kids/3/project/DIY-Sundial/2652 SCIENCE IN THE NEWSQuake Scouting Lander Safely Touches Down on Mars
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Leise Thomason-BA Biology Brown University Categories |