Transcript: January Week 5

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

RACHEL
..Rachel..

KRIS
..And Kris

PAUL
The moon is full on February 1st at 11:45 PM.

RACHEL
The full moon of February is often called the Snow moon.

KRIS
The moon is full when it’s opposite the sun in our sky.

RACHEL
But because the moon’s orbit is inclined by five degrees with respect to our orbit around the sun, the full moon is usually above or below a line connecting the sun and earth.

PAUL
As a result, the earth’s shadow doesn’t fall on the moon every full moon. So we don’t have a lunar eclipse every month.

KRIS
But at two times a year the full moon can line up with the sun and earth.

RACHEL
These two points at which the moon’s orbit intersects the plane of the earth’s orbit around the sun are called nodes.

KRIS
But the full moon doesn’t have to be exactly at a node. The full moon is large enough that if it’s close to a node, we will still have a lunar eclipse.

RACHEL
Therefore every year we’ll see between two and five lunar eclipses.

KRIS
Our next lunar eclipse doesn’t take place until March 3rd. Unfortunately, the eclipse is ending as the moon rises. So we won’t see much of it.

PAUL
But we have a second opportunity on August 28th.

RACHEL
And most of this total lunar eclipse will be visible from Idaho. Only the very end of it will occur at moon set.

KRIS
You can expect to see the moon turn orange during the eclipse. The orange comes from sunlight being refracted around the earth’s atmosphere.

RACHEL
If the air is clear and not cloudy, then the moon will be a bright orange. But if it’s cloudy, the moon will be a dull orange.

PAUL
On the 3rd at six AM, the lucida of Leo the Lion will be one degree to the east of the moon.

KRIS
The lucida of Leo is the star called Regulus. It represents the heart of the lion.

RACHEL
The moon is one half degree wide. So Regulus will only be two lunar diameters away from the moon.

KRIS
The moon and Regulus are best seen in your binoculars.

PAUL
Beginning on the 4th, the Zodiacal Light will be visible in west after sunset.

RACHEL
Wait until it gets dark to look for it. That will be around 7:30 PM.

KRIS
The Zodiacal Light will look like a faint pillar of light.

RACHEL
At first you may mistake it for the light of dusk.

KRIS
But the light of dusk hugs the horizon. The Zodiacal Light on the other hand is narrow and tall.

RACHEL
We have two weeks to see the Zodiacal Light. After that, evening moon light will interfere.

PAUL
That’s Idaho Skies for the last week of January and beginning of February. Join us next month to hear about the space and astronomy events for Idaho and beyond.

For Idaho Skies this is Paul…

KRIS
..Kris..

RACHEL
.. and Rachel.

Our sound engineer this month was Gwen Sanchirico.

Transcript: January Week 4

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

RACHEL
..Rachel..

KRIS
..And Kris

PAUL
The moon reaches first quarter phase on the 25th at 4:00 PM.

KRIS
This is the best phase to go moon watching.

RACHEL
So if you got a new telescope for Christmas, tonight’s the night to get it out and look at the moon.

KRIS
Pay particular attention to the lunar terminator.

ARNOLD
I’ll be back

KRIS
No, not that kind of terminator. The terminator is the boundary between day and night.

PAUL
At the terminator, the sun is just beginning to rise.

RACHEL
Since the moon has no atmosphere to scatter sunlight, its shadows are very dark and crisp.

KRIS
But shadows on the moon are not perfectly dark. The moon’s rough surface scatters light and fills in some of the shadows.

RACHEL
Through your telescope, look closely along the lunar terminator. You’ll probably see points of light on the dark side of the terminator.

KRIS
Most of those are mountain peaks. They’re so high the sun hits the peaks hours before their base.

PAUL
Wow, what a difference 45 years can make in our success of space missions.

RACHEL
In the early 1960’s, the United States was trying to land its first spacecraft on the moon.

KRIS
Actually we were trying to hit the moon, since we hadn’t developed soft landing techniques yet.

RACHEL
The spacecraft were called Ranger. And Ranger 3 was launched to the moon 45 years ago on the 26th.

KRIS
The Ranger spacecraft sent live television images of the moon as they got closer and closer to the surface.

PAUL
Live television from a crashing spacecraft was probably better than what the three networks were showing on the air at the time.

RACHEL
The Ranger series paved the way for the moon landings of Surveyor and Apollo.

KRIS
The United States would not have a successful moon crash until Ranger 7 in 1964.

RACHEL
Due to course correction errors, Ranger 3 missed its suicidal landing on the moon by a whooping 24,000 miles, or six lunar diameters.

KRIS
Today Ranger 3 is stranded in solar orbit.

PAUL
On a tragic note, the astronauts of Apollo 1 died 40 years ago on the 27th.

RACHEL
Astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee where killed during a ground test of the new Apollo spacecraft.

KRIS
The design of Apollo was rushed in order to meet John F. Kennedy’s deadline of landing a man on the moon before the end of the decade.

PAUL
Apollo’s poor design left wire bundles exposed where their insulation could be abraded.

RACHEL
In addition, its interior was filled with flammable materials and its hatch was designed to be opened inward.

KRIS
During a ground test of January 27th, 1967, the Apollo was on internal power and had an internal atmosphere of 100% oxygen.

RACHEL
At 6:31 PM the astronauts called out that there was a fire inside the spacecraft.

KRIS
The oxygen atmosphere turned the interior of the capsule into an inferno.

RACHEL
The gases generated by the combustion of flammable materials made it impossible to open the hatch.

KRIS
The plastics inside the spacecraft generated poisonous gases that killed the astronauts before the fire did.

RACHEL
At the remains of Launch Complex 34, where Apollo 1 was being tested, there’s a plaque that reads,

KRIS
LAUNCH COMPLEX 34
Friday, 27 January 1967
1831 Hours

PAUL
Dedicated to the living memory of the crew of the Apollo 1:
U.S.A.F. Lt. Colonel Virgil I. Grissom
U.S.A.F. Lt. Colonel Edward H. White, II
U.S.N. Lt. Commander Roger B. Chaffee

RACHEL
They gave their lives in service to their country in the ongoing exploration of humankind's final frontier. Remember them not for how they died but for those ideals for which they lived.

Transcript: January Week 3

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

RACHEL
..Rachel..

KRIS
..And Kris

PAUL
Venus is once again the evening star.

RACHEL
At 6:30 PM on the 20th look for Venus 4 degrees above the horizon.

KRIS
The 45 hour young moon will be located to the upper left of Venus and only 3 degrees away.

RACHEL
You’ll need a pair of binoculars and a flat west-southwest horizon to see the moon and Venus.

KRIS
Venus should be the easier object to find. So let Venus guide you to the thin crescent moon.

RACHEL
Very few people have ever seen the moon less than two days old. So if you can find it, you’ll have something to be proud of.

PAUL
English mathematician John Couch Adams was born 215 years ago on the 21st.

KRIS
John Couch Adams? Who is he?

RACHEL
Adams predicted the position of the first planet X.

KRIS
Wasn’t that Neptune?

RACHEL
That’s right. After the discovery of Uranus by William Hershel, astronomers began to notice that the planet wasn’t located exactly where it was suppose to be.

PAUL
So either Newton’s laws failed at large distances from the sun or an unseen planet was tugging on Uranus.

KRIS
Adams assumed it was an undiscovered planet rather than a limitation to Newton’s laws of gravity or motion.

RACHEL
Adams assumed planet X was located twice as far from the sun as Uranus.

KRIS
That’s because the Titus-Bode Law predicted a planet should be located at that distance.

RACHEL
Adams then calculated the location where planet X would have to be to create the observed variations in the orbit of Uranus.

KRIS
Unfortunately Adams couldn’t convince English astronomers to look for his planet.

RACHEL
At the same time, French mathematicians and astronomers were also making calculations on the location of planet X.

PAUL
And unlike the English, Le Verrier, a French astronomer, did go looking for planet X.

KRIS
Le Verrier and his assistant used the latest star charts and found the new planet in less than an hour.

RACHEL
But it turns out they were not the first to find Neptune.

KRIS
That’s right. In one of Galileo’s notes he marked the location of a star that was near the planet Jupiter. It turns out that the star was actually Neptune.

RACHEL
For more astronomy information, check out the Idaho Skies webpage

KRIS
You’ll find information and links to all of Idaho’s space and astronomy resources.

PAUL
Like observatories..

RACHEL
..Planetariums..

KRIS
..and astronomy clubs

RACHEL
The website is at idahoskies dot org.

PAUL
That’s Idaho Skies for the third week of January. Join us next week to hear about the lunar terminator and the Ranger spacecraft. For Idaho Skies this is Paul…

KRIS
..Kris..

RACHEL
.. and Rachel.

Transcript: January week 2

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

RACHEL
..Rachel..

KRIS
..And Kris

PAUL
The moon is at apogee on the 10th at 11 AM

KRIS
Apogee is the point in the moon’s elliptical orbit that is its greatest distance from earth.

RACHEL
The moon is 251 thousand miles away today. That’s the same distance as ten trips around the world.

PAUL
Wait; what’s that star to the moon’s upper right on the morning of the 11th?

KRIS
Why that’s Spica, or the lucida of Virgo.

RACHEL
Spica will be 2-1/2 degrees from the moon, or five lunar diameters away. You can’t miss it.

KRIS
Spica is the 16th brightest star in our sky. But it’s not a single star. It’s really two stars orbiting each other.

RACHEL
They orbit each other so closely that their mutual gravities pull each other out of round.

KRIS
The light you see from Spica left in the year 1744, or 262 years ago.

PAUL
Sergei Pavlovich Korolev was born 100 years ago on the 12th.

RACHEL
You may not be familiar with the name of Korolev, but you are familiar with his work.

KRIS
Korolev designed the SS6 Sapwood, the world’s first successful inter continental ballistic missile, or ICBM.

RACHEL
After proving that it worked, he converted it into the first rocket capable of putting a satellite into space.

KRIS
The Soviets did not name the rocket Sapwood; that was NATO’s name. Korolev called it the R-7. His nickname for his creation was Semyorka, or old number seven.

PAUL
It was old number seven that put Sputnik 1 and Yuri Gagarin into orbit.

RACHEL
The rocket is still being used today in Russia, making it the most successful rocket in history.

KRIS
In a way, its surprising that Korolev designed the R-7.

RACHEL
Shortly before the beginning of World War II, he was arrested by Stalin in one of his paranoid purges.

PAUL
Korolev was sent to work in the Kolyma gold mine, one of Russia’s worse gulags.

KRIS
Since the Soviet Union was unprepared to fight the war against Germany, Stalin began using his political prisoners as slave labor.

RACHEL
So Korolev was saved from the Kolyma gold mine and sent to an aeronautical lab.

KRIS
After the end of World War II Korolev was sent to Germany to study the Nazi V-2 missile.

RACHEL
With the information he gained and his own creativity, Korolev succeeded in creating the Soviet Union’s first missile, the R-1.

KRIS
It’s amazing to think that a man so brutalized by the Soviet system would go on to create their space program.

RACHEL
Korolev died in 1966 during a simple operation. His surgeon discovered Korolev had cancer and he was unable to treat it. Korolev died on the operating table.

PAUL
At 7:00 AM on the 15th, Antares is less than 2 degrees above the very thin crescent moon.

KRIS
But that’s not all. Jupiter will be the even brighter star to the moon’s upper left.

RACHEL
Jupiter’s distance from the moon is 6-1/2 degrees. And all three objects, Jupiter, the moon, and Antares will fit in the field of view of your binoculars.

PAUL
That’s Idaho Skies for the second week of January. Next week our show will tell you how to find a very young moon and the two discoveries of Neptune. For Idaho Skies this is Paul.

KRIS
..Kris..

RACHEL
.. and Rachel.