Monday August 03,2009

August eNewsletter from the Minnesota Planetarium Society

In this issue from the Minnesota Planetarium Society:

Exciting Times at MnPS

July has been a very busy month for all of us at the Society. It all started with the County Commissioners meeting on July 14th where they approved unanimously accepting the State pre-design funds for the Planetarium and created a “capital account“ in their budget for our project. Two days later there was a great article in the Tribune that spurred two additional radio interviews. The first, with KSTP, lasted only a couple of minutes. But we were able to talk about the importance of the project for schools and the State.

The second interview on WCCO was on July 22nd, the day of the total solar eclipse in Asia. Suzie Jones was the host. Board member Larry Rudnick answered all the science related questions and I fielded questions about the Society and our capital campaign. Both of us were pleasantly surprised by the amount of time we were given, nearly 20 minutes!

Angus M. Vaughan, President, MnPS

ExploraDome

The new school year is right around the corner! The ExploraDome is ready to take your students on a roller coaster ride through the universe. Learn more about the ExploraDome and how your school can join the 123 schools in Minnesota and Wisconsin that have traveled to the edge of the universe! The ExploraDome is also available for community groups and other events.

On the web:
www.mplanetarium.org/exploradome.htm
By email:
exploradome@mplanetarium.org
By phone:
651-999-7300
On YouTube:
www.youtube.com/user/MPlanetariumSociety

Perseid Meteor Shower

One of the greatest meteor showers of the year hits the stage late night August 11 - early morning of August 12. The meteors will appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus in the northeast. If you find a nice dark location you can expect to see up to about 1 per minute, although the bright Moon in the sky may get in the way. Take a lawn chair or a blanket, face northeast, lie down and enjoy! You do not need binoculars or a telescope; the meteors streak so far across the sky that binoculars would limit your view. If the weather doesn't cooperate you can try again the next night.

New Spot on Jupiter

Have you seen the spot yet? The big Earth-sized one on Jupiter, that is, that amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley discovered in his small backyard telescope outside of Canberra, Australia. Scurrying on the tails of Wesley's discovery, NASA trained Hubble's new, and not yet fully calibrated Wide Field Camera 3 on the spot, and the gorgeous picture can be found at
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/main/jupiter-hubble.html. 

Follow-up infrared observations using the Gemini North Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii were able to determine that the spot was the result of a giant impact, rather than simply a storm in Jupiter's massive atmosphere. The impactor was likely a comet or asteroid several hundred meters across, and released an energy millions of times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, but still only one 10,000th of the dinosaur-killer that hit Earth 65 million years ago. Keep your head down!

August Skies

On a clear dark August night around 11pm, look low in the southeast to find bright Jupiter (outshone only by Sun, Moon, and Venus). To Jupiter’s right, low in the south, look for Saggitarius resembling a teapot to most of us. To its right is the bright star Antares that is part of the constellation Scorpius. Follow the handle of the Big Dipper to arc to Arcturus, the brightest star in the sky until Sirius rises early on August mornings. Almost directly overhead locate Vega, the second brightest star at this time of year. From Vega, move about 35 degrees down toward the southern horizon to find Altair and then go back up and left to Deneb and back to Vega to complete the Summer Triangle. For the early risers, check out bright Venus around 5am in the east. Good star maps can be found at www.skymaps.com .

Interesting Visual Pairings

August 5,6 Moon and Jupiter All night

August 17 Crescent Moon and Venus Low in SE ~5am