Thu, 15 June 2006  Sadly Astronomy a GoGo is a No Show this week. Our house painters have moved up their schedule and so it is a mad dash to prepare the outside of the house for the painting crew. So for Alice it is time to trim the hedges and tarp up the roses.Until next week here is wishing you a wonderful solstice! Comments[2] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fri, 9 June 2006 Carpe Noctem - Seize the Night! "Cirrus at Sunset" Graeme Stephens; CloudSat Principle Investigator (what a talented guy!) Photo courtesy of NASA : Chris Chrissotimos The Cloud: Last stanza I am the daughter of Earth and
Water, And the nursling of the Sky; I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores; I change, but I cannot die. For after the rain when with never a stain The pavilion of Heaven is bare, And the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleams Build up the blue dome of air, I silently laugh at my own cenotaph, And out of the caverns of rain, Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb, I arise and unbuild it again. Percy Bysshe Shelley Listener FeedbackJames from NZ passed on an interesting observation on environmental trickery.I do my running very early in the morning (about 6 - 7am), well this morning there was a most unusual planet/star in the sky - it was green and large. I knew it was not a plane as it was not moving. What it turned out to be was the wind blowing a different direction than usual,and smog coming from a meat works causing the strange effect, it tinted the light and magnified a star. Once I passed the works the effect just not there.David would like to share some information about the 1st Annual ASKC Star PartyOur friend Jim (RapidEye to some of you) has some more variable star information to share and writes: clipped "Anyway, I was getting caught up on podcasts this morning and just listened to the variable star show - another excellent podcast! One addition =-) Listener Question"How do you convert decimal latitudes and longs to degrees and minutes?" This
is handy to know since different online, free, and purchased planetarium
software need your location to create your sky. They vary in how they ask for
the information. To convert from dd mm ss to dd.fraction Constellations40 down 48 to go!
Jason was accompanied by some of the principal heroes of ancient Greece. The number of Argonauts varies, but traditional versions of the story place their number at 50. Some names that might be familiar to you included Heracles(Hercules), Orpheus(who played Lyra the harp), Castor and Polydeuces(Pollux), and in some versions the only woman on the ship was Atalanta the huntress. Some have hypothesized that the legend of the Golden Fleece was based on a practice of the Black Sea tribes of placing a lamb's fleece at the bottom of a stream to entrap particles of gold being washed down from upstream. A quick version of the story can be found on the Wikipedia site. Argo Navis was spilt into Carina (the keel), Puppis (the stern) and Vela (the sail), what makes these constellations particularly interesting, is that the stars which are usually named in accordance with relative brightness within the constellation were never renumbered, so there are no alpha stars in Vela and Puppis. ViewingNaked eye -The Summer Triangle, Vega, Denab, and Altair IC 2391 (mag 2.6) in Vela also called Omicron Vela Cluster really stretch and see if you can pick out the coat hanger Binocular - The Coat hanger west of Sagita (near Alberio) Epsilon Lyra - the Double double (mag 4.67 and 4.59) you will see the two primary stars (you will need a telescope for the companions) NGC 2516 (mag 3.8) open cluster in Carina NGC 2547 (mag 4.7) open cluster in Vela  
Telescope - The MoonHere we go again with another bright lunar weekend! Full moon is on the 12th at 3:04 UT so that gives us just a hair of a terminator to work look along for the weekend. Crater hopping on the moon. Like star hopping to find objects in the sky we can crater hop to find objects on the moon. Our crater hopping exercise tonight will be a challenge (to satisfy those of you clamoring for tougher objects) but the beginning couple of hops will be okay for binoculars and small telescopes if they are steady enough AND if you can get the moon at the right phase. If you miss it just wait 29.5 days and try again. Our beautiful lunar photo is courtesy of Frank Barrett at celestialwonders.com I recommend visiting his site and checking out his lunar phase photos. You can zoom in for more detail. I have numbered the craters in the order in hopping order.  Image courtesy of Frank Barrett
Now if you download this after the full moon step out and try to pick up these craters as the terminator passes Mare Crisium and heads towards Serenity and Nectar  Map images created with Lunar Phase Pro 
Remember latitudes that are negative (-) are South and longitudes that are negative (-) are West! *Lunar Awards: Planets
NewsFinally! A definition for "Planet"! The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is expected to propose wording to delineate planets from other small, round objects at its 12-day General Assembly meeting in Prague this August. The proposal will be based on recommendations from a newly formed committee that includes experts outside the realm of astronomy tasked to break a deadlock in earlier committee discussions. Great Red Spot and Red Junior 4th of July close encounter! The two are converging. Closest approach: the 4th of July, according to Amy Simon-Miller of the Goddard Space Flight Center who has been monitoring the storms using the Hubble Space Telescope. "There won't be a head-on collision," she says. "The Great Red Spot is not going to 'eat' Oval BA or anything like that." But the storms' outer bands will pass quite close to one another - and no one knows exactly what will happen. (More from NASA) Links:Jupiter Viewing Guide The Nine Planets - Jupiter Views of the Solar System - Jupiter Wikipedia Software: Jupiter 2 Sky and Telescope's Transit Calculator
Low-mass planet pairs - June 5, 2006 | Evidence continues to mount that planets can form around very-low-mass objects. In fact, planets might even form around objects that are so low in mass that they themselves could be considered "planets." CloudSat returning some amazing photos!(more from NASA) Principle investigator Graeme Stephens, from Colorado State via Australia Clouds exert an enormous influence on our weather and climate. They are the key element of Earth's hydrological cycle, heat distribution, heat regulation, and climate to mention a few of their jobs. NASA's Fuse Finds Infant Solar System Awash in CarbonScientists using NASA's Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer, or FUSE, have discovered abundant amounts of carbon gas in a dusty disk surrounding a young star named Beta Pictoris. (more from NASA) Comets for June.This month we have comets for everyone except those above 55 degrees north.There is a great image on the Bad Astronomy Blog of two of the Schwassman-Wachmann comet fragments. "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin" Email us at astronomyagogo@gmail.com or leave a note in our show notes at
www.astronomy.libsyn.com Woodland Hills Camera and Telescope is offering FREE web hosting on our servers for you or your organization's website. In order to promote the hobbies of Astronomy, Astrophotography, Photography, Birding or generally any topic that is of interest to our customer base, Woodland Hills Camera and Telescope is offering Hosting Grants.  Category: Constellations -- posted at: 5:03 PM Comments[3] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 8 June 2006 The tale of Jason and the Argonauts to explain why there is no Alpha Vela, some music, a view of the planets for the week and some crater hopping! www.astronomy.libsyn.com Comments[0] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fri, 2 June 2006 I have divided the show into two parts, early June and late June with a song in the middle to help you navigate. All of the observations are for 10pm for the mid latitudes as you move south it gets darker sooner so if you go out before 10 rotate my observations to the east 15 degrees for each hour.Great site for sunrise and sunset times and a downloadable toolbar application by Steve Edwards Download this month's sky map! Northern hemisphere sky
map
Key Dates for June Days and Times in UT (help with time)
...Did you know?
Planet Positions for 2006
Help us out by leaving a donation in the ol' PayPal hat or write us a favorable review in iTunes of Podcast Pickle or iPodder! Music Alexye Nov -"Nightly Murmur of Crickets" Category: Sky Tours -- posted at: 10:04 AM Comments[0] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 1 June 2006 You will find the maps for our sky tour at www.skymaps.com and the detailed show notes at astronomy.libsyn.com Enjoy! Comments[0] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Astronomy a Go Go!
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