RACHEL
Welcome to Idaho Skies for the last week of January. We’re your hosts, Rachel…
PAUL
…and Paul.
RACHEL
Beginning on the 29th, the Zodiacal light becomes visible in the west after dark.
PAUL
The Zodiacal Light is the reflection of sunlight off of dust orbiting around the sun.
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The dust orbits within the inner solar system and originates from comet tails and colliding asteroids.
PAUL
You’ll know you’re seeing the Zodiacal Light because it appears as bright as the last light of dusk. However, the Zodiacal Light extends upward rather than hugging the horizon.
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The Zodiacal light will remain visible for the next two weeks until the evening moon begins interfering with its faint light.
PAUL
The American Space Age began 55 years ago on the 31st.
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The United States launched it first satellite, Explorer 1, a cylindrical satellite 80 inches long and weighing 31 pounds
PAUL
The battery required to operate the satellite’s experiments and radio accounted for 40% of that weight.
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It was the third satellite in Earth orbit, after Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2. However, Explorer 1 remained in orbit far longer than either of its predecessors and didn’t reenter the atmosphere until 1970.
PAUL
Unlike either of the Sputniks, Explorer 1 carried instruments to measure cosmic radiation in space.
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Because the satellite did not carry a tape recorder, data from its Geiger counter experiments could not be recorded for later playback.
PAUL
The result was spotty and initially confusing measurements of the cosmic ray flux.
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At times, the geiger counters recorded a low background flux of energetic particles around Earth and at other times, they detected no cosmic rays at all.
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Dr. James van Allen eventually realized that the geiger counters on Explorer 1 produced no data because they were swamped with very high cosmic counts.
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In other words, the flux wasn’t zero; it was actually too high for the Geiger counters to handle.
PAUL
This observation led to the first major discovery of the Space Age, the belt of trapped radiation around Earth. Today we call the belt the Van Allen Belt.
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Over 800 active satellites are orbiting Earth today.
PAUL
You can see many satellites and spent rocket boosters on a clear night, not long after sunset.
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They will appear as stars slowly drifting across the sky. They won’t blink or flash colors like airplanes.
PAUL
The best way to know when and where to see a satellite is to visit the Heavens Above website.
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That’s heavens-above.com.
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Once at the website, click on the configuration option and select cities from its database.
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Type Boise as the search string and you’ll find there are three cities named Boise within the United States.
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After selecting Boise, Idaho, bookmark this page.
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Then you can select satellites like the International Space Station and Iridium flares.
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isit our blog for the link to Heavens Above and information on observing satellites.
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Our blog is idahoskies.blogspot.com.
PAUL
That’s Idaho Skies for the last week of January.
RACHEL
Follow us on Twitter at Idaho Skies for this week’s event reminders and sky maps. For Idaho Skies this is Rachel…
PAUL
and Paul.
Idaho Skies is a production of NearSys and Radio Boise 89.9 FM Caldwell/Boise and 93.5 FM downtown, K228EK Garden City.
RACHEL
Dark skies and bright stars.
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