Transcripts: 31 Oct - 6 Nov

PAUL
Welcome to Idaho Skies on Radio Boise. This is the first week of November. We’re your hosts, Paul..

RACHEL
..Rachel..

KRIS
..And Kris

PAUL
Twenty five years ago on the 4th, the Venera 14 spacecraft was launched to Venus.

RACHEL
Venera 14 was a Soviet spacecraft. And its mission was to explore the atmosphere and surface of Venus.

KRIS
To do this, it had to be a two part spacecraft. It consisted of an orbiter and a descent craft.

RACHEL
Venera 14 and its twin, Venera 13, both successfully landed on the surface of Venus. We’ll talk about their discoveries on the anniversary of their landing.

PAUL
Astronomer Fred Whipple was born one hundred years ago on the 5th.

KRIS
One of Whipple’s earliest works involved using two widely spaced cameras to record images of meteors.

RACHEL
By using his cameras to triangulate the positions and trajectories of meteors, Whipple was able to calculate their orbits before they entered earth’s atmosphere.

KRIS
These calculations lead to the conclusion that many meteors we see in the night sky come from comets.

PAUL
Speaking of comets, it was Whipple who developed the modern understanding of their composition.

RACHEL
In 1950 he proposed that they were a mixture of ice and dust. Whipple called them dirty snowballs.

KRIS
However, the Deep Impact spacecraft has modified our definition of comets a bit. Comets actually appear to be icy dirt balls instead.

PAUL
A fantastic day time astronomical event takes place on the 8th.

RACHEL
Tiny and innermost Mercury passes in front of the sun from earth’s perspective.

KRIS
That means we’ll see the silhouette of Mercury pass across the face of the sun.

PAUL
To see this event, you’ll need a telescope with a magnification of at least 50 power, although 100 power will be better.

RACHEL
Not only that, but your telescope also needs a proper solar filter.

KRIS
But if your telescope doesn’t have a solar filter, then project the sun’s image onto a wall. It’s safe to look at the sun’s image if it’s first reflected off a surface like paper or a wall.

RACHEL
However, under no circumstance look at the sun through a telescope if it doesn’t have a safe solar filter!

PAUL
The transit becomes visible at around 12:14 PM and lasts until 5:08 PM

KRIS
Through a telescope, Mercury will enter the sun’s disk at the seven o’clock position and exit at the three o’clock position.

RACHEL
In a telescope Mercury will appear as a tiny dot drifting across the solar face.

KRIS
Unlike a sunspot, Mercury will be perfectly round and have sharply defined edges.

RACHEL
That’s Idaho Skies for the first week of November. Join us next week when our topic is Edmund Halley’s great comet discovery.

For Idaho Skies this is Rachel

PAUL
..Paul..

KRIS
.. and Kris.