Transcript for November 17 to 24

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

RACHEL
...and Rachel.

PAUL
The Leonid meteor shower peaks the morning of the 17th.

RACHEL
The Leonids are famous for producing spectacular showers every 33 years.

PAUL
Unfortunately, this is not one of those years and the moon is full on the 17th.

RACHEL
On average, you can expect to see 10 Leonids per hour in dark skies.

PAUL
Expect any Leonids to be swift and to originate from the east.

RACHEL
Did you know that during its most intense storm, the Leonids produced over 1,000 meteors per hour?

PAUL
That lead some people to believe the world was coming to an end.

RACHEL
Even people who were sleeping at the time of the shower became aware of it.

PAUL
That’s because of the commotion of their neighbors and from the bright light emanating from the shower’s numerous fireballs.

RACHEL
Don’t forget that Mercury is visible this week.

PAUL
On the 18th, the innermost planet reaches its greatest distance from the sun.

RACHEL
You can see this elusive planet at around 6:30 AM as the brightest star low in the east-southeast.

PAUL
If you observe Mercury this week, you can take a certain amount of pride knowing that you observed a planet that the famed Polish astronomer Nicholas Copernicus never saw.

RACHEL
We take the expansion of the universe for granted these days.

PAUL
Its discovery was the culmination of the work of two astronomers, Humason and Hubble.

RACHEL
Edwin Hubble was born 124 years ago on the 20th.

PAUL
Hubble first gained prominence with his discovery that some nebulae visible in telescopes were actually galaxies external to the Milky Way galaxy.

RACHEL
In other words, these were not glowing clouds of gas or small clusters of stars as many astronomers thought, but were instead vast islands of stars just like the Milky Way.

PAUL
Years later, Hubble discovered that most of these galaxies were expanding away from the Milky Way.

RACHEL
That doesn’t mean that the Milky Way is the center of the universe, however.

PAUL
In fact, any astronomer residing in any galaxy would detect all the other galaxies expanding away from that galaxy.

RACHEL
This observation is only possible if the space between the galaxies is expanding.

PAUL
By knowing the rate of this expansion, one can determine when all the galaxies were last together, and therefore, the age of the universe.

RACHEL
This is a difficult calculation to make and it has taken some extra detective work for astronomers to discover that the universe began 13.8 billion years ago.

PAUL
That’s Idaho Skies for the third week of November. Next week, we’ll tell you where to see three morning planets. 

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.