Idaho Skies Transcript for the Week of November 4th

PAUL

Welcome to Idaho Skies for the week of November 4^th. We’re your hosts, Paul

STEPHEN

…and Stephen.

PAUL

The waxing gibbous moon appears in the south these evenings. Unfortunately, it’s a region of the sky that’s sparsely filled with stars. What is there tends to be faint. So many stars are not visible from town, let alone in dark skies south of Boise. There is one exception, however.

STEPHEN

That exception is Fomalhaut. Fomalhaut represents the mouth of the Southern Fish, or Piscis Austrinus. It’s not that this star is intrinsically bright that makes it so visible from Earth. It’s the fact that Fomalhaut is only 25 light years away. Only 26 visible stars are closer to the solar system than Fomalhaut.

PAUL

Fomalhaut means Mouth of the Fish, or Whale in Arabic. To the Persians, it was known as Hastorang and consisted one of four royal stars. Its Chinese name means North Gate of the Military Camp. And the natives of Northern Australia named it the White Cockatoo. What these people didn’t know is that the star has two other companion stars.

STEPHEN

Astronomers named brightest companion star of Fomalhaut TW Piscis Austrini. Although distant from Fomalhaut, its motion through space show it moves in the identical speed and direction as its brighter companion. The distance between them is nearly one light year. Its other companion is 2.5 light years away.  

PAUL

That’s Idaho Skies for the week of November 4^th.

STEPHEN

Be sure to follow us on Twitter @IdahoSkies for this week’s event reminders and sky maps.

For Idaho Skies this is Stephen

PAUL

…and Paul.

STEPHEN

Dark skies and bright stars.