Transcript for August 9 - 15

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

RACHEL
...and Rachel.

PAUL
The moon is four days from new on the morning of August 10th.

RACHEL
That means the morning of the 10th and 11th should be good opportunities to look for earthshine.

PAUL
Listeners will recall that earthshine is the faint illumination on the dark portion of the moon.

RACHEL
And that illumination comes from sunlight reflecting off of Earth.

PAUL
Who discovered the true source earthshine?

RACHEL
Probably Leonardo da Vinci who wrote about the cause of earthshine in 1510. However, he did make one mistake.

PAUL
What’s that?

RACHEL
He believed earthshine came from Earth’s oceans when it actually comes from Earth’s clouds.

PAUL
So Earth’s oceans and land are too dark to reflect enough sunlight to account for Earthshine?

RACHEL
That’s correct.

PAUL
One of the best meteor showers reaches its peak on the evening of the 11th and morning of the 12th.

RACHEL
Many judge the Perseid meteor shower to be one of the best meteor showers for two reasons.

PAUL
First is its dependable performance.

RACHEL
And second is the comfortable August nights.

PAUL
This year, moonlight won’t interfere with the shower.

RACHEL
Therefore, you can expect to see 60 meteors per hour from this shower from dark skies.

PAUL
In addition to the other meteors from the other active meteor showers.

RACHEL
Most meteors are the size of sand grains and they’re vaporizing 60 to 80 miles above the ground.

PAUL
That’s because they’re plowing into Earth’s atmosphere at speeds nearing 130,000 mph.

RACHEL
How will our listeners know that they’ve just seen a Perseid meteor?

PAUL
All Perseids will have trails that appear to originate from the low northeast.

RACHEL
So crawl into a sleeping bag and look up on the night of the 11th.

PAUL
Best of all, there are no commercial interruptions.

RACHEL
That’s Idaho Skies for the second week of August. The moon leads listeners to a nice double star and Saturn next week.

 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.