
We hope you can join us and observe Jupiter for this season -- the season runs until November 2009. We would like to note that
we have even had success observing Jupiter well after sunrise; the reason is that the Sun is so quiet right now. We will have coordinated observing sessions in the future to help you with you observations. Stay tuned for these announcements.
A strong type III solar burst was observed by a number of Radio JOVE observers on February 10, 2009 at 18:02Z.
No sunspots were visible on the Sun on that date, but the burst was quite strong at 20 MHz.
One of the coming events for the International Year of Astronomy is the "100 Hours of Astronomy" scheduled for April 2-5, 2009. (See http://www.100hoursofastronomy.org/) . One of the key goals of 100 Hours of Astronomy is to have as many people as possible look through a telescope as Galileo did for the first time 400 years ago. Many star parties and other celebratory events around the world will happen during the 100 Hours.
Radio JOVE would like to participate by having as many radio telescopes as possible running continuously for the 100 hours, sending out their signals on the web for most or all of that time. Even if you can't run your equipment continuously, having it running as much as possible would be wonderful. Another possibility would be to take Radio JOVE equipment to a local star party, set it up, and show others that optical astronomy is not the only way to learn about the universe.
Our hearts are heavy with this sad news here at Radio JOVE.
Solar cycle 24 has been recognized as having begun in early 2008. New solar cycles always begin with a high-latitude, reversed polarity sunspot. The region of magnetism that appeared back in December 2007 achieved high latitude (24 degrees North) and was magnetically reversed, but no supporting sunspot appeared until 25 days later.
We can expect the level of solar activity to increase over the next 4-5 years. (See Observing the Sun.)
On July 19, 2007 Radio JOVE celebrated the delivery of the 1000th RJ 1.1 Radio Telescope Kit. Mike Youngdeer, a high school student from Cherokee, NC in the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute's (PARI) 2007 Space Science Lab program was the kit's recipient.
RJ Project Team Members Dr. Jim Thieman and Dr. Chuck Higgins were on hand and presented Mike with the book "Listening to Jupiter", software, and NASA posters and pins.
On Saturday, June 23, Radio JOVE team members set up at the Jupiter radio emission discovery site near Seneca, Maryland, highlighting this historical event to visitors taking part in Montgomery County's Heritage Days celebration.
The Radio JOVE Project mourns the passing of Ken Franklin, astronomer, writer, educator, and co-discoverer of Jupiter's radio emissions. Dr. Franklin passed away on June 18, 2007.