Idaho Skies Transcript for April 23rd and 24th

RACHEL
Welcome to Idaho Skies for April 23rd and 24th. We’re your hosts, Rachel...

PAUL
...and Paul.

RACHEL
Today we have the story of a planet and a star cluster.

PAUL
Venus is that bright star that stargazers see in the low west-northwest this evening.

RACHEL
The Evening Star is so bright that stargazers can’t miss it.

PAUL
Venus is the second planet of the solar system and similar to Earth in size and composition.

RACHEL
However, it’s far from Earth-like.

PAUL
With a perpetual reflective cloud cover, one would think Venus couldn’t get hot from sunlight.

RACHEL
But its carbon dioxide atmosphere traps all the heat generated from the tiny amount of sunlight reaching its surface.

PAUL
Over time, this created a planet with crushing air pressure and an air temperature hot enough to melt lead.

RACHEL
Next to Venus, you’ll find the Pleaides star cluster.

PAUL
This is a cloud of 1,000 stars, some dust, and gas 444 light years away.

RACHEL
Binoculars can show over two dozen member stars inside the Pleiades.

PAUL
And over the next few nights, brilliant Venus will appear as distant member of this cluster.

RACHEL
Since their distance apart is smaller than the width of a binocular field of view, you’ll see both at the same time.

PAUL
So spend a few minutes looking at this pairing of brilliant point of light and a gossamer star cloud.

RACHEL
You’ll see the relative positions between Venus and the Pleiades change every night.

PAUL
That’s because Venus is slowly getting higher every day and the Pleiades are approaching the horizon.

RACHEL
That’s Idaho Skies for the 23rd and 24th of April.

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

For Idaho Skies this is Paul...

RACHEL
...and Rachel.

PAUL
Dark skies and bright stars.