Transcript: May Week 1

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

RACHEL
..Rachel..

KRIS
..And Kris

PAUL
The moon is new on the 5th.

RACHEL
The moon is new when it passes between the sun and the earth.

KRIS
At that point, the sun’s light shines on the side of the moon turned away from the earth.

PAUL
There is not such thing as the dark side of the moon. Every part of the moon sees daylight for two weeks each month.

RACHEL
However, there is a far side. That’s the side of the moon we can’t see from earth.

KRIS
We can’t see this hemisphere because the moon rotates as fast as it orbits the earth.

RACHEL
As a result, one side, the near side, always faces earth.

PAUL
This month’s new moon is unique for 2008.

KRIS
That’s because the moon also reaches perigee, or its closest distance from earth, on the same night.

RACHEL
At perigee the moon is 222,300 miles away.

KRIS
This month’s new moon combined with perigee produces larger than average tides.

PAUL
We have another astronomical event occurring on the 5th.

RACHEL
That’s right. The Eta Aquarid meteor shower reaches its peak.

KRIS
The meteors from this shower originated in the tail of comet Halley.

RACHEL
The Eta Aquarids will appear to originate low to the south east horizon.

KRIS
The point in the sky where meteors appear to originate is called the meteor shower’s radiant.

RACHEL
However, in the case of the Eta Aquarids, its radiant doesn’t rise until late at night.

KRIS
This means the shower doesn’t reach its best until after midnight.

RACHEL
However, on the plus side, the moon is new. So the shower ought to appear a bit richer with its fainter meteors.

PAUL
It will be easy to locate Mars on the evening of the 9th.

KRIS
That’s because it’s just 5 degrees to the upper left of the crescent moon.

RACHEL
Mars will appear orange and star-like. And both Mars and the moon will fit within the field of view of your binoculars.


PAUL
The moon is very close to a nice star cluster on the evening of the 10th.

KRIS
The star cluster is the Beehive star cluster and it is less than 2 degrees to moon’s left. That’s four times the moon’s diameter.

RACHEL
The Beehive is bright enough to be visible to the unaided eye in dark skies.

KRIS
It appears as a fuzzy spot to the eye, but as a scattering of stars with modest optical aid, like a pair of binoculars.

RACHEL
A telescope can show more stars in this cluster, but has too much magnification to see both the moon and cluster at the same time.

KRIS
So stick to using your binoculars and look for a small scattering of stars nearly twice as large as the moon.

RACHEL
The Beehive is 577 light years away. So the light of the Beehive you see tonight left in 1431, or more than 60 years before Columbus discovered the Americas.

KRIS
The cluster is 16 light years across. So imagine a beam of light taking 16 years to cross the cluster that you see in your binoculars.

PAUL
That’s Idaho skies for the first week of May. Join us next week to hear about America’s first space station, Skylab.

For Idaho Skies this is Paul…

RACHEL
Rachel..

KRIS
.. and Kris.