Transcript: May Week 5

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

RACHEL
..Rachel..

KRIS
..And Kris

PAUL
The moon is full a second time this month on the 31st at 7:00 PM.

RACHEL
Today we call a second full moon of the month a blue moon.

KRIS
Historically that was not always the case.

RACHEL
That’s right. Due to an error in Sky and Telescope magazine, the definition of Blue Moon was changed.

PAUL
On average there are twelve full moons per year.

RACHEL
That comes out to three full moons per season.

KRIS
So winter had three full moons, as did spring, summer, and autumn.

RACHEL
Each full moon had its own name. So we find full moons with names like, The Moon Before Yule and The Moon After Yule.

KRIS
But what happens where there are 13 full moons in a year.

RACHEL
Well, one of the seasons will have four full moons.

PAUL
Doesn’t that extra full moon throw off the naming scheme?

KRIS
Yes it does. But instead of changing the names of the full moons, the third full moon of a season was called a blue moon.

RACHEL
That leaves the first two and last full moons of the season with the same name.

KRIS
Did you know that every 19 years there are two blue moons?

RACHEL
That’s true if you use the modern definition of blue moon.

KRIS
That last time that happened was 1999.

RACHEL
So we’ll have to wait until 2018 for that to happen again.

KRIS
The double blue moons will occur in January and March.

PAUL
Speaking of the moon, it’s between Jupiter and Antares the night of the 31st.

RACHEL
They’ll rise shortly after ten PM. So you’ll want to wait until after eleven PM to look for them.

KRIS
Jupiter is the bright star to the moon’s upper left

RACHEL
Antares is the fainter star to the moon’s upper right.

PAUL
That’s Idaho Skies for the last week of May. Join us next month for the space and astronomy news for Idaho and beyond. For Idaho Skies this is Paul…

KRIS
..Kris..

RACHEL
.. and Rachel.

Our sound engineer this month was Gwen Sanchirico.

Transcript: May Week 4

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

RACHEL
..Rachel..

KRIS
..And Kris

PAUL
The moon is at first quarter on the 23rd at two PM

KRIS
Remember that the first quarter moon is the best moon for observing its craters and mountains.

RACHEL
So even if you only have a small telescope, get it out and invite your neighbors to look at the moon.

PAUL
The fourth Mercury astronaut lifted off 45 years ago on the 24th.

KRIS
Scott Carpenter was launched into a 5 hour mission that took him three times around the earth.

RACHEL
Carpenter’s spacecraft was named Aurora 7.

KRIS
And he was the second American to orbit the earth.

PAUL
Didn’t the United States launch three astronauts before Carpenter?

RACHEL
Yes, but the first two, Shepard and Grissom, were launched on suborbital hops. So they didn’t orbit the earth.

KRIS
Of the original Mercury astronauts, Carpenter was the one most interested in doing science.

PAUL
For instance, he identified John Glenn’s fireflies

RACHEL
The fireflies were sunlight reflecting off of ice floating off the Mercury space capsule.

KRIS
Due to problems with the Mercury capsule, and possibly mistakes made by Carpenter, his retro rockets fired late.

RACHEL
As a result, he landed 280 miles away from the planned recovery site.

KRIS
It took the aircraft carrier Intrepid 40 minutes to locate and recover Carpenter.

RACHEL
Carpenter never flew in space again. After his NASA career, he went into ocean research.

PAUL
The moon is at apogee on the 27th at four PM.

KRIS
Its greatest distance for this month is nearly 252 thousand miles.

RACHEL
According to the Info Please website, a rabbit runs at 35 mph.

KRIS
So Paul’s house rabbit Allie could run to the moon in just under ten months.

RACHEL
A snail on the other hand would take 281 years to crawl to the moon.

PAUL
Look for the waxing gibbous moon on the night of the 27th.

KRIS
Two degrees above the moon is a star.

RACHEL
It’s Spica, the brightest star of the constellation Virgo.

KRIS
Spica doesn’t look very bright. But that’s just an illusion.

RACHEL
Spica is 260 light years away. So to appear as bright as it does in our sky, Spica is actually 13 thousand times brighter than the sun.

PAUL
That’s Idaho Skies for the fourth week of May. Join us next week to learn about the Blue Moon and Jupiter. Idaho Skies is a production of NearSys and Boise Community Radio.

For Idaho Skies this is Paul…

KRIS
..Kris..

RACHEL
.. and Rachel.

Transcript: May Week 3

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

RACHEL
..Rachel..

KRIS
..And Kris

PAUL
On the 15th the moon reaches perigee, or it’s closest to earth for this month.

RACHEL
Its perigean distance this month is a mere 223 thousand miles.

KRIS
Which is just a stone’s throw in the solar system.

RACHEL
Why, the sun’s diameter is over four times larger than the distance between the earth and moon today.

KRIS
And the sun is just a tiny ball in the center of the solar system.

PAUL
Here’s a photographic opportunity for readers.

RACHEL
After it gets dark….

PAUL
That’s around 10:30 PM

RACHEL
CLEARS THROAT
…. look for the crescent moon in the west.

KRIS
Two lunar diameters below the moon is the Evening Star, Venus.

RACHEL
Both the moon and Venus are bright enough that a camera with telephoto lens can record them.

KRIS
You’ll need a tripod and cable release to take this picture.

RACHEL
The tripod holds the camera steady during its exposure

KRIS
And the cable release keeps your hand from shaking the camera when you press its shutter button.

PAUL
Don’t forget to set the focus of the telephoto lens to infinity

RACHEL
Or you’ll end up with blurry pictures

KRIS
It’s best to leave your lens wide open, or at its lowest f-stop. That way your camera will gather the greatest amount of light.

PAUL
How long should I set the exposure time?

RACHEL
You almost never know how long to keep the lens open during its exposure. So take several pictures with different exposure times.

SOUND OF CAMERA SHUTTER

KRIS
This is called bracketing your exposures.

PAUL
The moon will guide you to the Beehive star cluster on the evening of the 21st.

RACHEL
You’ll need to wait until it gets thoroughly dark, so wait until about eleven PM.

KRIS
You’ll find the large Beehive star cluster four degrees to the moon’s lower right.

RACHEL
The moon and Beehive are close enough that both objects will be visible through your binoculars at the same time.

KRIS
So put the moon in the upper right of your binoculars. Then you’ll see the Beehive near the center of the binoculars.

PAUL
That’s Idaho Skies for the third week of May. Join us next week to hear about the Moon, astronaut Scott Carpenter, and Spica. For Idaho Skies this is Paul…

KRIS
..Kris..

RACHEL
.. and Rachel.

Transcript: May Week 1

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

RACHEL
..Rachel..

KRIS
..And Kris

PAUL
The moon is full on the 2nd at four AM.

RACHEL
The full moon is spectacularly bright when viewed from a dark location.

KRIS
Moonlight is really sunlight. It’s just reflected off its surface before we see it.

RACHEL
Did you know the moon only reflects 12% of the sunlight shining on it?

KRIS
That means the moon is about as dark as asphalt.

RACHEL
So the moon only looks bright because the night sky is comparatively dark.

PAUL
That wouldn’t be the case if Saturn’s moon Enceladus orbited the earth instead of our moon.

KRIS
That’s because Enceladus is covered in nearly pure water ice.

RACHEL
That gives this Saturnian satellite a reflectivity of 99%.

KRIS
A reflectivity that high makes Enceladus nearly as bright as the sun.

RACHEL
Astronomers have a term for the reflectivity of astronomical bodies. They call it albedo.

KRIS
Albedo is written as a decimal and not a percentage. So Enceladus has an albedo of point ninety nine.

RACHEL
And earth has an average albedo of point three seven.

PAUL
Speaking of the moon, it’s close to the star Antares on the morning of the 4th.

KRIS
Antares is a red giant star and the lucida of Scorpius

RACHEL
You’ll find Antares eight lunar diameters to the moon’s left.

KRIS
That’s close enough together that both the moon and Antares can be seen at the same time in your binoculars.

PAUL
May fourth is Space Day.

RACHEL
The theme of Space Day this year is, fifty years in space.

KRIS
It’s been fifty years since Sputnik 1, the first satellite, was launched into earth orbit.

RACHEL
You can find more information on Space Day at its website, www.spaceday.com

PAUL
Seven degrees above the moon on the morning of the fifth you’ll find a very bright star.

KRIS
That star is not a real star; it’s the gas giant, Jupiter.

RACHEL
You can’t miss this planet; it’s the brightest stellar object in the morning sky.

KRIS
The moon and Jupiter rise together around midnight. So you’ll want to wait until at least one
AM to look for them.

RACHEL
That’s Idaho Skies for the first week of May. Join us next week when Idaho Skies will tell you how to find a nice star cluster in your binoculars and where you can attend a star party in the very dark skies.

For Idaho Skies this is Rachel

KRIS
..Kris..

PAUL
.. and Paul.