Transcript for Febraury 22 to 28

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

RACHEL
...and Rachel.

PAUL
The moon passes close to the Pleiades and Hyades star clusters on the 24th.

RACHEL
These are the two largest and brightest star clusters in the Northern hemisphere.

PAUL
Both clusters and the moon will form an attractive target for your binoculars.

RACHEL
The moon is an excellent target for your telescope.

PAUL
However, extended objects like the Hyades and Pleiades don’t appear anywhere as nice through most telescopes.

RACHEL
That’s because most telescopes have too narrow of a field of view.

PAUL
And their field of view gets more restrictive as their magnification increases.

RACHEL
Wide angle telescopes like rich field telescopes or spotting scopes are designed to provide large fields of view.

PAUL
However, they do this by sacrificing their magnification.

RACHEL
But that’s alright; there are many things in the night sky that are better at low power.

PAUL
The moon just clips the edge of the Hyades star cluster on the 25th.

RACHEL
This will be a perfect sight for your binoculars.

PAUL
Astronomer Kenneth Edgeworth was born 135 years ago on the 26th.

RACHEL
He should be more famous since he predicted a region of comets surrounded the outer reaches of the solar system.

PAUL
We often hear this belt of "comets in waiting" called the Kuiper Belt.

RACHEL
Some people call this region the Kuiper-Edgeworth Belt because Kuiper and Edgeworth made predictions on its existence.

PAUL
However, a careful reading of their arguments reveals that these astronomers didn’t actually predict what astronomers began discovering in 1992.

RACHEL
That’s because when they made their prediction, astronomers believed that Pluto was an Earth-sized object.

PAUL
And as a result, its gravity scattered all the comets in the belt out of the solar system.

RACHEL
However, there are two other astronomers who did make accurate predictions.

PAUL
They’re astronomers Fred Whipple of the United States and Julio Fernandez of Uruguay.

RACHEL
They understood that Pluto couldn’t affect this belt very strongly and that icy bodies still orbit the sun.

PAUL
Pluto is one of the largest Kuiper Belt objects and that there are millions more out there.

RACHEL
However, the largest one that astronomers have discovered doesn’t reside in the Kuiper Belt.

PAUL
What?

RACHEL
Yep, it’s now the largest satellite of Neptune.

PAUL
Oh, you mean Triton.

RACHEL
That’s right. It orbits Neptune in the opposite direction that Neptune spins on its axis.

PAUL
And that’s a dead giveaway that it escaped from the Kuiper Belt and was captured by Neptune.

RACHEL
That’s Idaho Skies for the last week of February. 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.