Transcript for January 25th to 31st

PAUL
Welcome to Idaho Skies for the last week of January. We’re your hosts, Paul...

RACHEL
...and Rachel.

PAUL
This is star cluster week.

RACHEL
So get your binoculars ready.

PAUL
The moon forms a triangle with the Hyades and Pleiades star clusters on the night of the 28th.

RACHEL
Bright star clusters are perfect objects for your binoculars or spotting scope.

PAUL
While the fainter ones will appear as fuzzy spots...

RACHEL
...the brighter ones can appear as a scattering of diamond dust.

PAUL
Star clusters formed from one giant cloud of dust and gas.

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A disturbance, perhaps a supernova shockwave creates a wave of compression that lets gravity’s attraction overcome the random motions of the molecules inside the cloud.

PAUL
When this happens, the cloud shrinks and fragments into many pieces.

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Each fragment shrinks into a spinning pancake of dust and gas.

PAUL
As it gets smaller, the cloud of gas grows ever hotter.

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At some point, the center of the cloud gets hot enough to start fusing hydrogen into helium.

PAUL
The remaining dust and gas fragments into smaller pieces that eventually collapse into planetesimals, or the building blocks of planets.

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Planetesimals collide with each other as they orbit the new born sun.

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Many of them will stick together to build larger structures that will eventually become planets.

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Our solar system most likely formed in such a way 4.5 billion years ago.

PAUL
Unfortunately, the sun’s siblings drifted away long ago.

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The moon drifts past the edge of the Hyades star cluster on the 29th.

PAUL
The Hyades appears as a large triangle of stars.

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Look for the orange star at the end of the triangle nearest the moon.

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The star is not actually a member of the Hyades star cluster.

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It’s much closer to our solar system than the Hyades.

PAUL
And it just happens to lie in a line between our solar system and the Hyades star cluster.

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The star’s name is Aldebaran and it represents the glowing red eye of Taurus the Bull.

PAUL
Aldebaran means the follower in Arabic.

RACHEL
Why the follower?

PAUL
Probably because the star follows the Pleiades star cluster.

RACHEL
That’s Idaho Skies for the last week of January. Join us next month for the space and astronomy events for Idaho.

PAUL
Be sure to follow us on Twitter at Idaho Skies for this week’s event reminders and sky maps.

For Idaho Skies this is Paul...

RACHEL
...and Rachel.

PAUL
Dark skies and bright stars.

Transcript for January 11th to 17th

PAUL
Welcome to Idaho Skies for the second week of January. We’re your hosts, Paul...

RACHEL
...and Rachel.

PAUL
Venus is visible once again as the Evening Star.

RACHEL
And it has a friend for the next two weeks.

PAUL
Look low in the southwest at 6:00 PM on the 11th for Venus; it’s the brightest star in that part of the sky.

RACHEL
Just located to the right of Venus is a fainter star that’s actually the planet Mercury.

PAUL
A pair of binoculars is useful for observing this duo.

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But please be careful, don’t use your binoculars until after the sun sets.

PAUL
A relatively bright star appears just below the moon on the morning of the 13th.

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The star is Spica, the alpha star of Virgo the Maiden.

PAUL
The distance between the moon and Spica is 2.5 degrees, or about five times the moon’s apparent diameter.

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That means the pair will fit nicely within the field of view of your binoculars.

PAUL
Spica is the 15th brightest star and its 250 light years away.

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However, Spica is not just one star.

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That’s right; it’s actually a pair of giant stars orbiting each other in just four days.

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The stars orbit each other so quickly because they’re very close together.

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They’re so close that their gravity stretches them into egg-shapes.

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Mercury reaches it greatest distance from the sun on the night of the 14th.

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Astronomers call this Mercury’s greatest eastern elongation.

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In astronomy talk, that means Mercury appears as far east of the sun as possible.

PAUL
So as its getting dark at 6:00 PM, look for Mercury just right of brighter Venus.

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The pair will be 10 degrees above the southwest horizon, which is about twice the angle your binoculars can see.

PAUL
Saturn and the moon appear just one degree apart on the morning of the 16th.

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So as you drive to work on Friday morning, look for a star to the moon’s right.

PAUL
If you’re not driving to work that morning and you have a telescope, then take a few minutes to look at Saturn.

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Even at low power, the planet’s rings are visible as a yellowish disk surrounding Saturn’s equator.

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Don’t confuse for an orangish star below the moon.

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That’s a real star, the red giant Antares.

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Antares is the brightest star of Scorpius the Scorpion.

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It represents the heart of the scorpion and its just over 600 light years away.

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That means the light you see tonight left in the year 1410.

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That’s Idaho Skies for the second week of January. Next week you have the opportunity to see a very young moon and Earthshine.

PAUL
Be sure to read our blog for additional information. It’s at idahoskies.blogspot.com. For Idaho Skies this is Paul...

RACHEL
...and Rachel.

PAUL
Dark skies and bright stars.

Transcript for January 4 - 10

RACHEL
Welcome to Idaho Skies for the first week of January. We’re your hosts, Rachel...

PAUL
...and Paul.

RACHEL
The first major meteor shower of the year reaches its peak on the night of the 3rd and morning of the 4th.

PAUL
It’s the Quadrantid meteor shower and we can expect to see as many as 45 bluish meteors per hour.

RACHEL
Unfortunately, the moon is one day from full.

PAUL
Which means its light will interfere with some of the fainter meteors.

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However, the average brightness of the shower’s meteors is pretty high.

PAUL
So there’ll still be plenty of meteors to see.

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If you plan to watch the Quadrantids, be sure to dress warmly and watch for meteors originating from the low north.

PAUL
The moon leads you to nice star clusters on the 9th.

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The clusters are located in the constellation of Cancer the Crab.

PAUL
To find them, point your binoculars at the moon at around 9:00 PM.

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Approximately half a binocular field of view below the moon is a small star cluster named M-67.

PAUL
It’s not very difficult to see the cluster as a fuzzy patch, but you’ll need to lower your binoculars a little bit further.

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That way the moon’s light won’t wash out the star cluster.

PAUL
A much easier to see star cluster is the Beehive star cluster, however.

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And you’ll find it to the upper left of the moon.

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The distance between the Beehive star cluster and the moon is just over a binocular field of view.

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So place the moon in the lower right edge of your binoculars.

PAUL
Then you’ll see the star cluster in the upper left corner of your binoculars.

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The Beehive star cluster is visible to the unaided eye in the dark skies that you’ll find outside of Boise.

PAUL
It appears just like it did to the ancients, a small fuzzy spot in the sky.

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Searching for Jupiter?

PAUL
Then look for the moon after 8:30 PM on the 7th.

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The bright star located to the moon’s upper left is Jupiter.

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You may notice that Jupiter doesn’t twinkle like the other bright stars.

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That’s because Jupiter’s large size lets it average out all the brightness fluctuations caused by moving pockets of air.

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This is pretty much true for all the planets.

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Even though stars have much larger disks than the planets, they’re so far away that they appear smaller than pin points of light.

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As a result, even small pockets of moving air can twist and bend the beams of starlight enough to make their color and brightness fluctuate.

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You can see all four of Jupiter’s large satellites through a spotting scope.

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From bottom to top, you’ll see Io, Jupiter, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

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They’ll form a compact group, so you might not be able to separate the satellites as well through a pair of binoculars.

PAUL
That’s Idaho Skies for the first week of January. Several planets make the news next week.

RACHEL
Be sure to 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.

RACHEL
Dark skies and bright stars.