Paris Full Moon Picnic Group

Ahoy there,

I’m back in Paris and will be hosting next Full Moon Picnic will be Saturday, August 9 from 8:30 PM to 10:30 PM. Sunset around 9 PM. Moonrise around 10 PM.
Big thanks to the ever-charming Catherine for hosting the last two picnics during my travels.

According to the Farmer's Almanac: This is the Full Sturgeon Moon "The fishing tribes are given credit for the naming of this Moon, since sturgeon, a large fish of the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water, were most readily caught during this month. A few tribes knew it as the Full Red Moon because, as the Moon rises, it appears reddish through any sultry haze. It was also called the Green Corn Moon or Grain Moon.”

WHAT: Everyone brings food and drinks to share.

WHERE: Pont des Arts. We'll gather around the 2nd bench from the Right Bank side of the bridge. Nearest metros: Pont Neuf and Louvre-Rivoli.

WHEN: Sat Aug 9 from 8:30 - 10:30 PM

WHY: Share one of the most memorable sights in Paris with some of the nicest people around.

WHO: You and your friends.

HOW to find us: Keep your eyes out for a small telescope on tripod if the sky is clear. Look for a bunch of friendly people speaking English, French or gibberish, drinking and munching around a bench towards the Right Bank side of the bridge.

THEME: Sparkling. This is such a sparkling month. Perseid Meteor Showers. Bring funny hats, cakes, brownies, candles, sparklers and your sparkling personality,

BIRTHDAYS: Are you a Leo - like ME? Yes it’s my birthday in a couple of weeks. Let’s celebrate together and blow out the world’s largest birthday candle! Bring cake, I’ll bring sparklers. 🎂🎉🕺 🎆

AUGUST EVENTS: Perseid Meteor Showers peak Aug 11-13 (although visibility will be reduced because of light from the waning gibbous moon).

PUZZLER: What big discovery did Kilonova Seekers publish last month? What did it have to do with GRANDMA? Or with solving puzzles like this one: https://www.spot-differences.com/

PUZZLER ANSWER:
On July 1 astronomers at the University of Warwick published the discovery of an exploding star in the journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics. The star GOTO0650 became 2500 times brighter within a few days and then quickly dimmed to its previous level. Normally such a short-lived event would be missed by astronomers because the each of the world’s telescopes is only seeing a tiny sliver of the night sky at any given moment. However astronomers were alerted to the big event by amateur citizen scientists, playing “spot the difference” on the Kilonova Seekers website where you can compare images of sections of the sky taken over successive nights.

“ 'Kilonova Seekers is a unique opportunity for members of the public to take part in true real-time astrophysics,' said team co-leader Tom Killestein, a researcher at the University of Warwick in England. 'Remarkably, public volunteers identified this star as an object of interest within 3.5 hours of the image being taken by the GOTO telescopes,' he added, referring to the Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer project, which employs telescope arrays in Spain and Australia.”