Transcripts: November Week 2

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

RACHEL
..Rachel..

KRIS
..And Kris

PAUL
Don’t forget, Mercury transits the sun on the 8th. This is an event that occurs only 13 times each century.

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

RACHEL
To see this event, you’ll need a telescope with a safe solar filter.

PAUL
Under no circumstance look at the sun through a telescope if it doesn’t have a safe solar filter!

KRIS
If your telescope doesn’t have a solar filter, then you can project the sun’s image onto a wall where it is safe to look at the reflected image.

RACHEL
A magnification of at least 50 power is all you need to see the transit. Although a magnification of 100 power will be better.

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

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 you’ll see Mercury as a tiny dot slowly drifting across the solar face.

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

PAUL
We celebrate Edmund Halley's 350th birthday on the 8th.

RACHEL
Halley is best known for his discovery that comets return to our skies periodically.

KRIS
Until the early 18th century it was believed that each comet was a one time event. In other words, each one appeared just once and never returned.

RACHEL
While keeping Newton’s laws of motion and gravity in mind as he was looking over the history of bright comets, Halley discovered that one particular comet kept returning every 76 years.

KRIS
He then predicted it would return in 1758 or 1759.

RACHEL
And when the comet reappeared on Christmas Day 1758, it was named after him.

KRIS
By the way, Halley’s last name does not rhyme with Bailey, but sounds more like Hal-ee.

PAUL
Forty years ago on the 12th, Gemini 12, the last Gemini, was launched into earth orbit.

RACHEL
The ten Gemini space missions were designed to develop and test the procedures NASA needed to launch the Apollo mission to the moon.

KRIS
The astronauts onboard Gemini 12 were Jim Lovell and Buzz Aldrin. And both would eventually go to the moon.

PAUL
The moon rises between Saturn and the star Regulus on the morning of the 13th.

RACHEL
This is a good binocular event.

KRIS
In your binoculars you’ll see the planet Saturn as the star to the moon’s upper right

RACHEL
And Regulus, which is the star that represents the lion’s heart, to the moon’s lower right.

KRIS
That’s Idaho Skies for the second week of November. Join us next week to hear about the Mariner 9 and the Leonid meteor shower.

For Idaho Skies this is Kris.

PAUL
..Paul..

RACHEL
.. and Rachel.