Items Featured In TGP NOMINAL 4.5
The Milton Keynes IMAX Odeon, Star Wars: The Last Jedi Premier Event (16/12/2017):
Mars Desert Research Station - International Space University Crew 188:
TGP Nominal Honorary Crew Member 'Ryan L. Kobrick' is going to be Commander of the International Space University alum crew, at the Mars Desert Research Station #MDRS188! The crew has awesome projects lined up, but the most important is opening doors for future students to experience Mars on Earth.
Ryan has contacted us about recording a special podcast while he is there. We love some listener participation for this Podcast.
So if you would like to ask Ryan & the crew anything about the mission, Get In Touch!
The deadline for your submissions is Friday January 26th
Ross's January Skies:
It was a meteor, larger ones are called fireballs…. It was probably part of the Quadrantid meteor shower, Although the Quadrantids have been known to produce some 50-100 meteors in a dark sky, their peak is extremely narrow, and radiate from the constellation Quadrans Muralis, (Mural Quadrant). Never heard of it? That’s because no longer exists. Created by the French astronomer Jerome Lalande in 1795, it was located between the constellations of Bootes the Herdsman and Draco the Dragon. But now radiates not far from the star Arcturus in bootes, What a fantastic thing to see especially on new years eve, |
Opening the new year was a supermoon now we did discuss in previous episodes that these aren't really that rare as when we get a full moon that is at perigee (closest in its orbit to the earth) it happens, its especially cool to see as it rises because the Earth's atmosphere creates an illusion as the light bends round its curve it makes the moon look red and huge, so this years first full moon was a particularly good one being at perigee.
Because super moons do appear 14% bigger than the average full moon and can be up to 30 percent more luminous astrologers tried to attribute them to earth quakes, eruptions and even pulling people into space,
In reality the moon actually has only 3% more powerful a pull on the planet when at perigee so there’s no need to panic it won’t affect us.
The moon wanes away from the 1st into a new moon on the 17th.
In history a new moon used to represent a new birth for whichever zodiacal sign it happened to be in at the time but for astronomers now days it means it’s time for deep sky observing.
Now all this is leading us towards the end of the month where on the 31st we have another full moon, there’s nothing really special about this moon except that it happens to be the second full moon in the same month.
This is known as a blue moon hence the term, once in a blue moon, named by American farming almanacs, it is not actually blue but may appear reddish due to the fact that it is also a total lunar eclipse, unfortunately we just miss this in the UK…
But because some of the suns light is being bent round the earth by its atmosphere into its own shadow, and because the earth has carbon in its atmosphere it may make it appear slightly red.
There are a few other other dates to put in your astronomy diary, Most of the planets are seen in the morning sky at the moment, you will see Jupiter and the red mars easiest to see and are quite close together, but as we swing round to them in our orbit, the best views will be in June/July where almost all the planets will be able to be seen if your out from dusk till dawn, but back to this month..
On the 15th Saturn, Mercury & the Moon form a neat triangle but close to the rising sun be careful, good chance to see the elusive planet.
There are also a couple of other cool shapes you can see if you can spot throughout the month like the big Celestial G of main bright stars around the constellation Taurus the bull…. And the winter triangle.
Look up to Orion, above you will see the star Capella in Auriga the goat star. Trace a line left to Gemini and the two stars at the head of the stick men, Castor and Pollux. Then down to Procyon in the tiny constellation Canis Minor. Then below right to Sirius the brightest star in the northern hemisphere, back up to Orion and the blue giant Rigel. Then Aldebaran in Taurus the bull back, down left to Betelgeuse, creating a G….. which is also the area where the winter triangle is found its an asterism formed by Betelgeuse, procyon and Sirius. See if you can make out both of these shapes in January's sky.
Click on the above logo to visit UK Astronomy's Object Of The Month page
UK Astronomy has an event on the 27th in Aylesbury, at The Green Dragon Eco Farm.
There will be farm to fork sausage in a bun, a drink, a talk by Ross Hockham and NASA Solar System Ambassador, Janelle Harrier-Wilson, all about "Our Moon".
See Green Dragon's website, the UK Astronomy FaceBook group for details about the event, or pop over to the events page on their website were you will find the new interactive public diary showing all this years events so far, including coffee nights, stargazing nights… etc, making it easier for you guys to come and meet them.
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