Transcript: December Week 4

PAUL
Welcome to Idaho Skies on Radio Boise. This is the last week of 2007. We’re your hosts, Paul..

RACHEL
..Rachel..

KRIS
..And Kris

PAUL
Close to midnight on the 28th, the moon appears between the planet Saturn and the star Regulus.

RACHEL
Saturn is the yellowish star seven degrees to the lower left of the Moon.

KRIS
That’s about the width of three fingers when viewed from your extended hand.

RACHEL
Regulus is the alpha star of Leo the Lion

KRIS
At a distance of 77 light years, the light you see from Regulus tonight left the star in 1930.

RACHEL
Regulus is the closest bright star to the ecliptic

PAUL
Ecliptic? What’s an ecliptic?

KRIS
The ecliptic is the imaginary path in the sky that the moon, sun, and planets appear to travel along.

RACHEL
Since it’s so close, Regulus is often covered or eclipsed by the moon.

KRIS
Regulus is a very young star, as far as stars go.

RACHEL
In fact, it’s only a few hundred million years old.

KRIS
That may sound old, but compare that age to our sun and solar system which are 4-1/2 billion years old, or about 200 times older than Regulus.

RACHEL
Regulus is not spherical in shape

KRIS
That’s right. It spins on its axis in just 16 hours, so it’s flattened at its poles.

RACHEL
Regulus won’t live long, compared to stars like the sun.

KRIS
That’s because Regulus is almost four times heavier than the sun.

PAUL
To be strictly correct, astronomers say Regulus is almost four times more massive than the sun.

RACHEL
Heavy stars crush their cores harder with their greater mass.

KRIS
The result is that the temperature inside a heavy star’s core is higher.

RACHEL
The high temperature speeds the fusion reaction inside the star.

KRIS
Not only does the star fuse its hydrogen into helium faster, it becomes unstable sooner.

PAUL
In time Regulus will accumulate enough helium ash inside its core that it will contract and grow even hotter.

RACHEL
When its temperature grows ten times hotter than when it was born, its helium will begin fusing into carbon and oxygen.

KRIS
The increased heat will inflate Regulus into a red giant star.

RACHEL
Regulus isn’t massive enough to fuse its carbon and oxygen ash. So most likely, Regulus will settle down into a white dwarf after it has finished fusing helium.

KRIS
The density of Regulus as a white dwarf will be about 16 tons per cubic inch.

RACHEL
Imagine the weight of a few cars in the size of a teaspoon.

PAUL
So look on the 28th for Regulus and the Moon together in your binoculars.

KRIS
Don’t forget to also look for Saturn, the yellow star a palm’s width to the lower left of the Moon.

RACHEL
That’s Idaho Skies for the last week of 2007. Our sound engineer this month was Paul Molinari. Join us in 2008 for the space and astronomy news for Idaho and beyond.

For Idaho Skies this is Rachel…

PAUL
..Paul..

KRIS..
and Kris.

Transcript: December Week 3

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

RACHEL
..Rachel..

KRIS
..And Kris

PAUL
The moon is at first quarter on the 17th.

RACHEL
So if it’s not too cold, take some time to look at the moon through your binoculars.

KRIS
The first quarter moon rises around noon and sets around midnight.

RACHEL
That puts the first quarter moon in the most convenient location in the sky.

KRIS
Look along the terminator, or the boundary between night and day, to see the most detail.

RACHEL
At the terminator, the sun is just beginning to rise. So the shadows are at their longest.

KRIS
The long shadows bring out the most detail. And on the moon, our nearest celestial neighbor, the details are very visible

RACHEL
Even in a pair of binoculars.

PAUL
Earth passes its closest to the red planet on the 19th.

KRIS
This happens every 26 months, or every two years and two months.

RACHEL
When Earth catches up to Mars, the planet appears at its brightest in our sky.

PAUL
But if you look from Mars, the Earth is close to the Sun and very difficult to see.

KRIS
So look for a bright orange star that rises in the east near sunset.

RACHEL
That’s Mars and it’s only 54 million miles away.

PAUL
On the night of the 21st, the Pleiades are 1-1/2 degrees to upper right of moon.

KRIS
The Pleiades are more commonly known by the name, the Seven Sisters.

RACHEL
In Japan they’re called Subaru.

KRIS
Look three lunar diameters to the upper right of the moon on the night of the 21st with your binoculars to see the Pleiades star cluster.

RACHEL
Normally, this would be nice in binoculars. However, since the moon is nearly full, its light will wash out some of the cluster’s fainter stars.

PAUL
Eight minutes after midnight on the 22nd, the sun reaches the solstice.

KRIS
In other words, winter begins for Idaho.

RACHEL
If you were to watch the position of sunset throughout autumn, you would see it moving further south.

KRIS
At the solstice, the sun’s daily changes in sunset position come to a stop. Hence the name, solstice or sun standing still.

RACHEL
In a few weeks, we’ll see the sun is setting farther to the north.

KRIS
Then the days will start getting longer again.

RACHEL
Even though the day is getting longer, it will take the atmosphere and ground two months to show signs of warming.

PAUL
The moon is full on the 23rd.

KRIS
That same night, the Moon, Mars, and a star cluster are close enough together to be seen in your binoculars.

RACHEL
Mars is the bright orange star just to the right of the Moon. You can’t miss it.

KRIS
The star cluster is M-35 in Gemini. It’s three degrees or six lunar diameters to the right of the moon and Mars.

PAUL
That’s Idaho Skies for the third week of December. Listen next week as we talk about the close passage between the Moon, Saturn, and Regulus.

For Idaho Skies this is Paul…

KRIS
..Kris..

RACHEL
.. and Rachel.

Transcript: December Week 2

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

RACHEL
..Rachel..

KRIS
..And Kris

PAUL
This week we’re speaking with Chris Anderson at the Centennial Observatory in Twin Falls.

So Chris, what’s the big astronomical even for this week?

CHRIS
I think it would have to be the Geminid meteor shower which peaks this Friday morning in the early morning hours.

KRIS
Can you explain to us what exactly a meteor shower is?

CHRIS
A meteor shower is when Earth plows through a stream of debris left behind by a comet, a lot like you car driving through a cloud of bugs and splattering on your windshield on a summer night.

RACHEL
So which comet did the Geminids originate from?

CHRIS
It’s not one of the ones you’ve probably heard of, like comet Halley or Hale-Bopp, this is actually an object known as Phaethon, which is sort of a burned out comet, kind of a cross between a comet and an asteroid.

PAUL
So will our listeners need a telescope or pair of binoculars to see this shower?

CHRIS
Absolutely not. In fact, you don’t want to use a telescope or pair of binoculars because they limit how much of the sky you can see. Meteor showers occur all over the sky and you want your eyes to take in as much as possible at once.

KRIS
Chris, is there a particular part of the sky where we’ll be more likely to see to se the meteor shower?

CHRIS
Well they’ll appear to emanate from the constellation of Gemini, which in the pre-dawn hours will be pretty high in the sky. If you look near Gemini, you’ll see more meteors, but they’ll have shorter paths and if you look further away, you’ll see fewer but they’ll have longer paths.

RACHEL
Is 2007 a good year to view the shower?

CHRIS
As a matter of fact, it is. The moon is going to be setting early enough in the night so it won’t interfere with the shower. Plus, the meteors appear to be getting stronger every year. When they were first discovered in 1862, that was the first year anyone had seen them and there seems to be more of them every year that goes by.

KRIS
If I can’t go out Friday morning, is there another time I can see this meteor shower?

CHRIS
Yes. In fact, the shower lasts for the better part of the week. It will be strongest on Friday morning, but f you can’t get out until Saturday morning or if you want to look a little bit earlier like on Thursday morning, you should more than the usual number of meteors those nights as well.

RACHEL
So Chris, can you tell us a little bit about the observatory?

CHRIS
Absolutely. The Centennial Observatory is one of the largest public telescopes in Idaho, in fact the second largest. It’s also one of the largest handicap accessible telescopes in the world. And we’re open the second Saturday of every month year around. And we have other events as well and people can find out about those by calling our information line at (208) 732-MOON

PAUL
Thanks Chris.

PAUL
That’s Idaho Skies for the second week of December. Join us next week for more space and astronomy news in Idaho and beyond.

For Idaho Skies this is Paul.

RACHEL
..Rachel..

KRIS
.. and Kris.

Transcript: December Week 1

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

RACHEL
..Rachel..

KRIS
..And Kris

PAUL
As you drive to work on the morning of the 5th a natural satellite, a star, and a planet are on display.

KRIS
They’re the Moon, Spica, and Venus and they form a small equilateral triangle low in the east.

RACHEL
Spica is the dim star at the top of the triangle.

KRIS
Venus forms the left corner of the triangle and appears as a bright star, while the moon forms the right corner of the triangle.

RACHEL
They’re almost close enough to be seen at the same time in a pair of binoculars.

KRIS
However, their distances from earth are 263 light years, 251 thousand miles, and 90 million miles respectively.

RACHEL
So much for being close together.

PAUL
If weather or technology doesn’t fail, the European Space Agency’s Columbus Laboratory will lift off for the International Space Station on the 6th.

KRIS
Columbus is Europe’s largest contribution to the ISS.

RACHEL
The module is 23 feet long and contains ten experiment racks with room for five more.

PAUL
What are experiment racks?

KRIS
Experiment racks are locations within the Columbus module where experiments from Earth can be carried by the Space Shuttle and plugged in.

RACHEL
These racks aren’t small. They’re the size of a phone booth and have all the connections an experiment would need.

KRIS
Astronauts onboard ISS or ground controllers on Earth can run the experiments on Columbus.

RACHEL
There are four additional experiment racks on Columbus, and these are located on the outside of Columbus.

PAUL
The moon reaches apogee on the 6th.

KRIS
Its greatest distance from Earth this month is 252,400 miles

PAUL
Hard to believe, but it’s been 35 years since the last Apollo mission was launched to the moon.

RACHEL
The target of Apollo 17 was the Taurus-Littrow region of the Moon.

KRIS
Astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt landed with their rover on the moon on the 11th.

RACHEL
Did you know that Harrison was the only scientist to go the moon?

KRIS
During their three days on the moon, the Apollo 17 astronauts drove 19 miles across the lunar surface and collected 243 pounds of rocks.

RACHEL
One of the mission highlights was their discovery of orange soil.

KRIS
It was tiny beads of volcanic glass from a lunar fire fountain that was active billions of years ago.

RACHEL
It makes one wonder what other things the moon has waited billions of years for us to discover.

PAUL
That’s Idaho Skies for the first week of December. Next week we talk with Chris Anderson of the Centennial Observatory about this month’s nice meteor shower.

For Idaho Skies this is Paul…

KRIS
Kris..

RACHEL..
and Rachel.

Transcript: November Week 4

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

RACHEL
..Rachel..

KRIS
..And Kris

PAUL
That orange star you see to the moon’s right on the evening of the 26th is the planet Mars.

KRIS
The moon and Mars together should make a nice photograph or binocular object.

RACHEL
If you plan to take a photograph of the Moon and Mars, then use a telephoto lens, tripod, and cable release.

KRIS
The tripod will keep your camera steady. That’s really important when you use a telephoto lens and a long exposure.

RACHEL
And the cable release isolates your camera from your shaking hand.

PAUL
While you’re looking at Mars, there’s a new spacecraft on its way there.

KRIS
That’s JPL’s Phoenix Lander.

RACHEL
Phoenix was built from spare parts left over from the Mars Polar Lander.

KRIS
The Mars Polar Lander unfortunately didn’t land successfully on Mars.

RACHEL
But the problems with the Mars Polar Lander have been corrected in the Phoenix Lander.

KRIS
So next June we should get our first close up look at the Martian artic.

PAUL
The moon is our guide to the Beehive star cluster a second time this month.

RACHEL
Look for the moon just after midnight on Thursday the 29th.

KRIS
In your binoculars, you’ll see a cluster of stars five lunar diameters above the Moon’s upper right.

RACHEL
You should place the Moon just outside the bottom left of your binoculars field of view so the cluster is close to center in your binoculars.

KRIS
The stars in the Beehive cluster will span an area larger than the moon.

PAUL
Regulus is three degrees to the left of the moon on the morning of the 30th.

RACHEL
Regulus is the lucida of Leo the Lion.

KRIS
If you’re 77 years old, then Regulus is your birthday star this year.

RACHEL
The light you see from Regulus tonight left the star in 1930.

PAUL
Not only is the Moon close to Regulus, but so is Saturn.

KRIS
Saturn forms a straight line with the Moon and Regulus, but is 8 degrees, or nearly the width of your palm further away.

RACHEL
Saturn is the pale yellow star to the lower left of the moon.

PAUL
Speaking of Saturn, the Moon glides passed it on December 1st.

KRIS
The moon and Saturn will rise around 1:00 AM.

RACHEL
At two degrees, or four lunar diameters, the Moon and Saturn are close enough together to seen in your binoculars.

PAUL
Also on the 1st, the moon is at last quarter.

KRIS
This means the moon won’t rise until around midnight on the 2nd.

RACHEL
So if you’re looking for dark evening skies, this is the perfect moon phase.

KRIS
The sky will remain dark for viewing faint astronomical objects in your telescope or binoculars.

RACHEL
That’s Idaho Skies for the last week of November. Join us next month for the space and astronomy news for Idaho and beyond.

For Idaho Skies this is Rachel…

PAUL
..Paul..

KRIS
.. and Kris.

Our sound engineer this month was Paul Molinari.

Transcript: November Week 3

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

RACHEL
..Rachel..

KRIS
..And Kris

PAUL
The moon reaches perigee, or its shortest distance from earth on the 23rd.

RACHEL
This month, perigee has a distance of 221,900 miles.

KRIS
Or roughly 74 times across the United States.

PAUL
So at a speed of 75 miles per hour……

SCRIBBLING NOISE

RACHEL
Don’t forget to carry the one….

SCRIBBLING NOISE

PAUL
I calculate it will take 2,960 hours to drive that distance.

KRIS
Or 123 days.

RACHEL
Happy motoring!

PAUL
On the evening of the 23rd, the nearly full moon is 3-1/2 degrees west of the Pleiades.

KRIS
Three and a half degrees is about the width of two fingers when viewed from an extended hand.

RACHEL
Since the moon is west of the cluster, it will move closer to the cluster as the evening progresses.

KRIS
By 4:30 AM on the 24th, you’ll see the moon crossing the northern portion of the Pleiades in your binoculars.

RACHEL
Astronomers have discovered that the stars in the Pleiades began forming 100 million years ago.

KRIS
That was during the Mesozoic when dinosaurs ruled the Earth.

RACHEL
That means the moon is 45 times older than the Pleiades, or 4.5 billion years old.

KRIS
By the way, in Japan, the Pleiades are called Subaru.

RACHEL
So the next time you see a Subaru driving down the road, look for its emblem of the Pleiades star cluster.

PAUL
The moon is full on the 24th.

KRIS
Many people call the full moon in November the Frost Moon

RACHEL
Did you know the full moon is more than twice as bright as a half moon?

KRIS
In fact, it’s around ten times brighter.

PAUL
But why? A fully lit ping pong ball looks twice as bright as a half lit one.

RACHEL
The full Moon gets brighter because it has a rough surface.

KRIS
That’s right. At full moon, the shadows from its rough surface are hidden. So we only see its bright surface.

RACHEL
But at half phase, we see sunlight reflected off the lunar surface plus shadows cast by the Moon’s rough terrain.

KRIS
This effect of brightening at full moon is called the opposition effect.

RACHEL
Since the moon reached perigee on the 23rd, those living near the coast can expect to see greater than average tides.

PAUL
That’s Idaho Skies for the third week of November. Listen next week as we talk about the Moon, Mars, and the Phoenix lander.

For Idaho Skies this is Paul…

KRIS
..Kris..

RACHEL
.. and Rachel.

Transcript: 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
It will be difficult to see, but on the evening of the 12th, the moon is to the lower left of Jupiter.

KRIS
So use your binoculars to see the Moon and Jupiter together.

RACHEL
To find them, look very low in the southwest at 6:00 PM.

KRIS
There, one binocular field of view above the horizon will be Jupiter.

RACHEL
And in the same field of view, and to the lower left of Jupiter, will be the thin crescent moon.

PAUL
On November 13th, the Rosetta spacecraft will make its second flyby of Earth.

KRIS
Rosetta is a space mission of the European Space Agency, or ESA.

RACHEL
Its destination is the comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

KRIS
Rosetta weighs three tons and is roughly the size of a compact car.

PAUL
That is, a compact car with solar panels 105 feet across.

RACHEL
Launched three years ago, Rosetta will rendezvous with, and orbit, its target comet in May 2014.

KRIS
It will spend 18 months studying the composition and behavior of this comet with its suite of 11 instruments.

PAUL
Doesn’t Rosetta carry a second spacecraft?

RACHEL
That’s right, it does. It’s a lander named Philae.

KRIS
Philae will attempt the first landing on the surface of a comet.

PAUL
The moon is at first quarter on the 17th.

RACHEL
So if it’s not too cold, grab a pair of binoculars and go moon watching during the best lunar phase.

PAUL
The Leonid meteor shower peaks on the night of the 17th and morning of the 18th.

KRIS
You can expect to see 10 meteors per hour from this shower.

RACHEL
The moon sets around 1:00 AM, so moonlight will not interfere significantly with the shower after midnight, when the shower peaks.

KRIS
Leonids are fast meteors that streak out of the east after midnight.

RACHEL
Since there are other active showers this night, you’ll see more than 10 meteors per hour.

KRIS
As a comparison, on nights with no active meteor showers, you can expect to see an average of 7 meteors per hour.

PAUL
What exactly is a meteor?

RACHEL
Meteors are the glowing trails left by meteoroids as they travel through the Earth’s upper atmosphere.

KRIS
Most meteoroids come from comets and they tend to be small, only the size of a sand grain or BB.

RACHEL
The channel of glowing air they create can be smaller than one centimeter wide.

KRIS
Typically, the meteors you see are between 60 and 80 miles high and they’ll never make it to the ground.

RACHEL
The fact that you can see a one centimeter wide channel from over 100 miles away means the air in the channel glows incredibly hot.

KRIS
That’s Idaho Skies for the second week of November. Our topics next week include the moon and the Pleiades star cluster.

For Idaho Skies this is Kris.

RACHEL
..Rachel..

PAUL
.. and Paul.

Transcript: November Week 1

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
The Morning Star rises just to the left of the moon on the morning of the 5th.

RACHEL
Venus is the Morning Star when it’s visible before sunrise. When Venus is visible after sunset, it’s called the Evening Star

KRIS
The angular distance between Venus and the Moon is 3 degrees, or 6 lunar diameters. That’s less than the width of two fingers when viewed from your outstretched hand.

RACHEL
The alignment of Venus and the moon will make an attractive photograph if you have a camera with a telephoto lens.

KRIS
Be sure to keep your camera steady during its exposure by mounting it to a tripod and using a cable release to open and close the shutter.

PAUL
NASA launched its second to last Surveyor 40 years ago on the 7th.

RACHEL
The target of Surveyor 6 was the center of the Moon as seen from Earth.

KRIS
It was a small volcanic plain called Sinus Medii, or Central Bay.

RACHEL
The 660 pound Surveyor landed safely on the moon on November 10, 1967.

KRIS
One week after landing, JPL commanded Surveyor 6 to fire its small attitude engines for a few seconds.

RACHEL
In response, Surveyor 6 lifted about 12 feet above the lunar surface and set back down about 10 feet away.

PAUL
That was the first lift off from another celestial body.

KRIS
After spending its first night on the Moon, Earth once again made contact with Surveyor 6 and found that the lander could not communicate properly with Earth.

RACHEL
That’s because the two week long cold lunar night had damaged the lander.

KRIS
Still, Surveyor 6 returned nearly 30,000 images of the lunar surface and confirmed that the surface consisted of basalt, or lava rock.

PAUL
Mercury is at its greatest western elongation on the morning of the 8th.

RACHEL
This means the innermost planet is easier to find because it’s at the greatest angular distance from the sun.

KRIS
To see this elusive planet, go outside around 6:30 AM.

RACHEL
Mercury will be the bright star very low to the horizon.

KRIS
The brightest star will be Venus. Little Mercury is left of Venus and only about one quarter as high above the horizon.

PAUL
435 years ago on the 11th, Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe discovered a new, and very bright star in Cassiopeia.

RACHEL
Brahe saw a supernova, which astronomers call SN1572.

KRIS
Since new objects were not supposed to appear in the heavens, most people believed the supernova was an atmospheric event.

RACHEL
However, Brahe’s observations indicated that the new star did not shift positions from night to night.

KRIS
Therefore, he concluded that the new star was indeed just that, a new star.

RACHEL
Today we know this star was not a new star. It was actually an old star that was too faint to be seen before it exploded.

PAUL
The appearance of the supernova convinced Brahe to become an astronomer.

KRIS
Brahe’s careful measurements of stellar and planetary positions became the raw data that his assistant, Johannes Kepler, later used to prove that the planets, including the Earth, orbited around the sun.

PAUL
That’s Idaho Skies for the first week of November. Next week the European spacecraft Rosetta gets a gravity boost from Earth. Hear about that and the Leonid meteor shower.

For Idaho Skies this is Paul…

RACHEL
Rachel..

KRIS
.. and Kris.

Transcript: October Week 5

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

RACHEL
..Rachel..

KRIS
..And Kris

PAUL
Venus reaches greatest western elongation on the morning of the 28th.

KRIS
This means the Morning Star is well above the horizon as you drive to work this morning.

RACHEL
In a small telescope the planet sports a third quarter phase.

PAUL
The Mount Wilson telescope celebrates a birthday on the 2nd.

KRIS
Ninety years ago, on November 2nd, 1917, the 100 inch telescope opened for business.

RACHEL
Astronomers call it first light when a telescope views the stars for the first time.

KRIS
Mount Wilson Observatory is located in the San Gabriel Mountains above Pasadena.

RACHEL
It’s over one mile high and visible from most of Los Angeles.

KRIS
When it opened, the 100 inch telescope was the largest in the world.

RACHEL
The 100 inch telescope let astronomers discovered that the sun is not at the center of the universe.

KRIS
Astronomers discovered that there were countless other galaxies or island universes as they first called them.

RACHEL
Astronomers were even more surprised to learn that these island universes were receding away from the earth. Almost as if our planet had made a serious social blunder.

KRIS
You can visit the observatory from April to November.

RACHEL
You’ll find a museum and picnic tables on the observatory grounds.

KRIS
There’s more information at www.mtwilson.edu.

PAUL
A weak meteor shower reaches its peak on the morning of the 3rd.

RACHEL
The moon will be a thin crescent, so its light will hardly interfere with the meteors.

KRIS
But the shower is still weak. On average, only seven meteors per hour are seen from the Taurids.

RACHEL
That’s the same number of meteors you can expect to see on nights when there is no shower.

PAUL
Guess what happened 50 years ago on November 3rd.

KRIS
Wait, Sputnik 2 was launched into orbit.

PAUL
That’s right. What made Sputnik 2 unique?

RACHEL
Sputnik 2 had a passenger, a dog named Laika.

KRIS
The Soviet Union, flush with the success of Sputnik 1, wanted another space spectacular to impress the world.

RACHEL
So a stray dog from the streets of Moscow became the first living being to enter into space.

KRIS
Unfortunately, Laika paid for being the first animal in space.

PAUL
Soviet engineers had too little time to design a well functioning capsule for Laika.

RACHEL
After entering orbit, Laika’s thermal protection failed to work properly.

KRIS
Within seven hours her cabin rose too high and Laika died from the heat and stress.

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

PAUL
..Paul..

RACHEL.. and Rachel.

Transcript: October Week 4

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

RACHEL
..Rachel..

KRIS
..And Kris

PAUL
Last week was the 40th anniversary of the first two spacecraft to visit another planet.

RACHEL
The first spacecraft to arrive alive to another planet was Venera 4.

KRIS
The Russians launched other previous Venera spacecraft, but they all stopped functioning before reaching their target, Venus.

RACHEL
On the October 18th, 1967, Venera 4 entered the Venusian atmosphere and transmitted data until it was 15-1/2 miles above the surface.

KRIS
At this altitude, the high atmospheric temperatures and pressures that Venera 4 measured destroyed the 840 pound probe.

RACHEL
Before Venus cooked and crushed it, Venera 4 returned data on the composition, temperature, and pressure of the Venusian atmosphere.

PAUL
The next day, the American Mariner 5 arrived at Venus.

KRIS
Mariner 5 was a converted Mars flyby probe and it passed 2,500 miles from Venus.

RACHEL
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory designed the Mariner 5 as a flyby spacecraft and not as an atmospheric probe. So it didn’t enter the Venusian atmosphere like Venera 4.

KRIS
During its flyby, Mariner 5 measured the radiation and magnetic fields of Venus.

PAUL
The moon is full on the 25th.

RACHEL
The full moon in November is often called the Hunter’s Moon.

KRIS
What makes this year’s Hunter’s moon special is that it’s the same day that the moon’s at perigee.

RACHEL
Its closeness to Earth makes this year’s Hunter’s Moon the largest full moon of 2007.

KRIS
Because the moon is full, it’s opposite the sun in the sky.

RACHEL
That means the Sun’s gravity combines with the Moon’s gravity to create larger than average tides.

KRIS
However, because this full moon is closer to Earth than most full moons, its tidal forces are even greater.

RACHEL
So coastal dwellers can expect to see larger than average tides today.

PAUL
Just as it’s getting dark on the 27th, look for the nearly full moon in the east.

KRIS
There to its right will be the Pleiades star cluster, or Seven Sisters.

RACHEL
The moon’s light will wash out some of its stars, but it should still be nice to see in binoculars.

KRIS
That’s Idaho Skies for the fourth week of October. Join us next week for the anniversary for the 100 inch telescope in Los Angeles and Sputnik 2.

For Idaho Skies this is Kris…

PAUL
..Paul..

RACHEL
.. and Rachel.