Events Calendar December 11 Sunday Mercury Visible Just Past Sunset December 13- 15 T-Th Low Afternoon Tide December 14 Wednesday Charter Family Low Tide Exploration December 14 Wednesday Supermoon/Full Cold Moon December 21 Wednesday Winter Solstice December 29 Thursday New Moon Low TideCharter families are invited to join me for a tide pool exploration at Campus Point Beach at 3:30 pm on December 14. I will have tide pool pocket guides and buckets. This is not an official school event. If you think you will attend email me at [email protected] or text me at 619-993-4339 . The days of December 13-15, January 11-13, and February 8-10 have convenient afternoon low tides of at least negative one foot. After that you will have to wait until December 2017 for very low tides (there are other very low tides if you don't mind waking up at 3 am). This month's low tides convenient for after school viewing are Tuesday, December 13 at 3:24 pm (-1.5 feet), Wednesday, December 14 at 4:11 pm ( -1.5 feet), and Thursday, December 15 at 4:59 pm (- 1.4 feet). If you haven't yet listened to "What's Behind the Waves and Tides podcast" try listening on the way to the beach. Or you can read about it here http://scijinks.jpl.nasa.gov/tides/ The California Tidepools app from UCSB is a downloadable education program that aims to make learning about beach life fun. The Night Sky this Month MERCURY The planet Mercury will be visible on Sunday, Dec 11 above the western horizon just after sunset. It will be easier to see then because it will be at its "eastern elongation," the furthest eastern point from the sun as viewed from earth. According to space.com "Because Mercury is the closest planet to the sun, it is usually lost in the sun's glare, and thus is rarely seen. It is most easily observed when the geometry of the sun, Earth and Mercury places it high above the horizon." You can take this fun quiz from space.com to learn more about the planet Mercury. http://www.space.com/15381-planet-mercury-facts-quiz.html FULL SUPERMOON The last supermoon in 2016 will be Wednesday December 14. Because the moon is about 30,000 miles closer at this time the moon will appear larger. You can read about the supermoon at NASA here: https://science.nasa.gov/news-articles/2016-ends-with-three-supermoons The moon will appear especially large when it rises at 6:05 p.m. and when it sets at 8:26 a.m. the next morning. The moon appears larger when it is on the horizon. However this is an optical illusion that you can read about here: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-do-the-moon-and-the-s/ The Geminid meteor showers will be around the same time as the supermoon so won't be easily visible. WINTER SOLSTICE Wednesday, December 21st is the shortest day of the year also known as the winter solstice. To learn more about Solstice Celebrations throughout history read this National Geographic article: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/12/1220_021220_solstice.html The long dark nights are a great time to enjoy making shadow puppets. There are instructions for hand shadows here: http://mesosyn.com/hsa.html Try this at home: Winter themed experimentsCOLORED SHADOWS: If you have colored string lights you can follow these instructions for making colored shadows. (The instructions call for flashlights and colored cellophane but colored holiday lights also work). https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/colored-shadows1/ PINECONES: Find some open pinecones and try soaking them in water to see what happens. http://lemonlimeadventures.com/why-pine-cone-science-experiment-for-kids/ SNOWFLAKES: Make these crystal snowflakes using borax (found in the laundry aisle) https://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/magic-crystal-snowflake/ In the News
Supermoon Tide Leaves Octopus Stranded in Parking Garage http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/11/supermoon-tide-miami-sea-level-octopus-garage/
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