Idaho Skies Transcript for January 14th and 15th

RACHEL
Welcome to Idaho Skies for January 14th and 15th. We’re your hosts, Rachel…

PAUL
…and Paul.

RACHEL
The moon just passed the first quarter phase. So get your binoculars or telescope out.

PAUL
Take a look to the moon’s upper right. That’s where you will find a dark oval called Mare Crisium, or the Sea of Crises. But it wasn’t always called by this name. Before 1651, it was known as the Caspian Sea. That’s probably because the Caspian Sea occupies the upper right corner of maps depicting Europe, Africa, and Asia. Back in 1600, British astronomer William Gilbert named it Brittania on his moon map. 

RACHEL
Jesuit astronomer Giovanni Riccioli published a moon map in 1651 that standardized the lunar place names. Giovanni was born in 1614, or five years after Galileo turned his newly made telescope towards the heavens (I made an error here, that’s the year he joined the Jesuit order). After his ordination in 1628, Giovanni became a teacher at the College of Parma in Italy. Did you know that Parma, Idaho was named after Parma, Italy? One of Parma’s famous residents was Edgar Rice Burroughs, the writer of the John Carter of Mars stories. 

PAUL
Giovanni had a greater interest in astronomy than theology. So his superiors assigned him the task of astronomical research. One of his research projects was testing how well a pendulum can keep time. Accurate clocks are very important in astronomical research. With the help of a second Jesuit astronomer, Francesco Grimaldi, Giovanni created a moon map for his book, the New Almagest. This map contained the names of lunar features as we have come to know them today. 

RACHEL
The large lunar seas, Giovanni named after the weather. Craters he named after important astronomers. The naming convention places the oldest astronomers at the top of the moon and more recent astronomers going clockwise around the moon from there. As a Jesuit, Giovanni couldn’t support the sun-centered universe. He claimed this is why he placed astronomers like Copernicus and Kepler in the Ocean of Storms. 

PAUL
That’s Idaho Skies for the 14th and 15th of January.

RACHEL
Be sure to read our blog for additional information. It’s at idahoskies.blogspot.com

For Idaho Skies this is Rachel…

PAUL
…and Paul.

RACHEL
Dark skies and bright stars.