Idaho Skies Transacript for July 27 - Aug 2

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

RACHEL
...and Rachel.

PAUL
Like the vast majority of orbits in our solar system, the moon’s orbit around Earth is not a perfect circle.

RACHEL
Closed orbits that are not perfect circles are called elliptical.

PAUL
You can think of them as perfect ovals, but not like an egg.

RACHEL
At its closest to Earth, the distance between the center of the moon and the center of Earth is 225,291 miles.

PAUL
At its greatest distance, the moon is 26,619 miles father away.

RACHEL
Perigee is the term for the closest distance and apogee is the term for the greatest distance.

PAUL
Due to its gravitation interaction with the sun, the distances of lunar apogee and perigee varies from month to month.

RACHEL
On the 28th, the apogee of the moon’s orbit is its greatest for the entire year, about 700 miles farther away than usual.

PAUL
At its greatest distance, it would take you over 9 ½ years to walk to the moon.

RACHEL
On July 30, 1610, Galileo became the first astronomer to observe Saturn’s rings through a telescope.

PAUL
Unfortunately, Galileo’s 20-power telescope was not good enough to show the true nature of the rings.

RACHEL
He thought he was seeing handles on opposite sides of Saturn.

PAUL
Later on, he thought he was seeing two very large satellites.

RACHEL
Things got more confusing for Galileo when two years later, when these objects disappeared altogether.

PAUL
It took decades before Cassini finally figured out that astronomers were seeing rings around Saturn.

RACHEL
Fortunately, you can see Saturn’s rings tonight though a small telescope or even spotting scope and you won’t suffer the confusion Galileo did.

PAUL
The Southern Delta Aquarid meteor shower peaks on the night of the 29th and morning of the 30th.

RACHEL
It’s a pretty good meteor shower and you can expect to see up to 20 meteors per hour in dark skies.

PAUL
Better still, the moon is young and it sets before midnight.

RACHEL
So its light won’t interfere with watching the fainter meteors.

PAUL
Adding to the number of meteors is the fact that July and August contain many overlapping meteor showers.

RAHCEL Any Southern Delta Aquarids will appear to originate from the southeast.

PAUL
So dress warmly and enjoy a shower, meteor shower that is.

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

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.