Alex Martin
Executive Director
November 25, 2024
With cold fronts moving down into Florida, it's safe to say deep astronomy season is on the way, and the seasonal forecast could not be better. Cold air is dense, meaning less atmospheric distortion occurs during telescope viewing. Why is this great? Because after months of warm air causing turbulence and holding our telescopes back from their full potentials, we can finally magnify objects more! When you visit SSC these days, Saturn may look a bit larger than you saw it during your last visit....maybe even 4x larger.
On top of that, Jupiter is now a regular fixture in the night sky, Venus is beginning to change shape (best view of Venus start happening late January), and the winter constellations are on the brink of becoming normal sights at SSC.
St. Pete is still the only location we have open. As of November 24th, both our Bradenton Riverwalk & Sarasota Bayfront Park locations remain shut down due to damages sustained during Hurricanes Helene and Milton. We are monitoring city updates and will announce when we plan to reopen those locations for stargazing and science experiments.
SSC reaches 10,000 visitors in 53 days
Since October 1st, Sidewalk Science Center saw 71% of our 2023 visitor count across 53 days (38 days if you subtract all the days we didn't host SSC in that range). We also hosted 30 programs from November 1st to 22nd, the first time we've hit 30 programs in a single calendar month. And finally, we have so far achieved 30,000+ visitors in 2024, or 2.05x our total count in 2023.
News to know about: Emily Calandrelli becomes the 100th woman to visit space
She's an MIT engineer, NYT bestselling author, former Netflix host of Emily's Wonder Lab, current host of her own Emily's Science Lab on YouTube, wife, and mother of two. Emily has aspired to become a role model for girls in science and represent her home state of West Virginia, which is historically overlooked in spaceflight and often one of the last to receive support in its education system. In fact, Emily is one of only three people from WV, and the first woman, to fly to space.
Emily flew to space on Friday November 22nd on the NS-28 mission from Blue Origin, where she viewed space from about 70 miles above the surface of the Earth, high enough to see the curvature, and experience weightlessness for about six minutes. During this flight, she brought along several experiments, notably a seed experiment for the company "Fast Plants," which is comparing the growth of seeds that have visited space to that of seeds that remain on Earth.
Say goodbye: Earth's "second moon" exits orbit today
The moon that no one could see due to being 32-feet across and nearly 1 million miles away at its closest point breaks free of Earth's gravity today, November 25th. Known as 2024 PT5, will briefly return to Earth orbit in 2055. Second moons are not uncommon; in fact, 2024 PT5 was technically a "third moon," because another asteroid, 2023 fw-13, has been orbiting Earth since about 100 BC and won't leave orbit until around 3700 AD.
In 2020, we also discovered an asteroid orbiting Earth that was determined to have been captured by our gravity in 2019, and eventually left in mid-2020. Another object discovered to be orbiting the Earth in 2020, dubbed 2020 SO, turns out to have been a rocket booster launched on the 1966 Surveyor 2 Centaur mission.
Another planetary alignment is coming - what will you actually see?
Pay attention to the night sky, and you'll notice that Saturn is sliding toward Venus week-after-week. In mid-January, the two planets will be sitting beside each other. At the same time, Jupiter will be overhead, and Mars will be rising off the horizon.
Our Rating: 5/10
Keep in mind that the planets are always in alignment, you just have to know the best times to look. Unfortunately, this alignment, already being touted by the news and shared around social media, is yet again one that won't really knock your socks off. The planets will be spread far apart, and with Venus and Saturn low on the horizon, any buildings or trees blocking your western view will get in the way.
The best way to witness this planetary alignment will be to visit SSC on January 17-18th for our upcoming Mars Festival. Information below.
Upcoming events to put on your calendar
Geminid Meteor Shower, December 13 -15th @ 11pm - 3am
Rated "Sidewalk Science Center's Best Meteor Shower of the Year" (okay, we made up that distinction). The Geminids are always the meteor shower to watch for. While the Perseids in August tend to be brighter, Florida typically has clouds when they peak. The Geminids occur during cloudless Florida Decembers. On moonless nights (2025 will be the next prime year), you can see about 80-100 per hour. And that's no joke: Director Alex Martin counted a total of 201 in a three-hour timespan back in 2020, during our last "moonless" Geminid Meteors. However, 2024 will have a Full Moon glaring out most of the sky, so while you may see a decent handful, it won't be as good to view as 2025 will be.
Moon Occults Mars, January 13th @ 8:30pm - 10pm
While it won't as much of a "wow factor" like Saturn was on November 10th, we'll have telescopes set up in downtown St. Pete to witness this event. But viewer beware: Mars will disappear behind the Moon for about 45 minutes. Maybe go grab some gelato and coffee from Paciugo Gelato & Caffe down the street while you wait for the return of the red planet?
Mars Festival, January 17-18th @ 6pm - 9pm
While this event was supposed to occur in Sarasota's Bayfront Park, we do not currently anticipate for it to be reopen in time. We are looking at North Straub Park in St. Pete as an alternate venue, which has clear horizons to Mars rising over the Tampa Bay.
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