Speaker 1: Welcome once again to the Doctor Sky Experience, heard exclusively
Speaker 1: here on Talk Radio seventy seven WABC out of New
Speaker 1: York and broadcasting around the nation, around the world. And
Speaker 1: I'm quite confident out into the cosmos. Welcome to our
Speaker 1: Doctor Sky podcast. Sky Update number twenty five. As we
Speaker 1: move through the near mid portion of July twenty twenty three, Well,
Speaker 1: hope you're having a good summer, even though there's scorching
Speaker 1: heat across the nation and around the world. That, of
Speaker 1: course is a story unto itself. But let's talk and
Speaker 1: reminisce a little bit about the beautiful full moon that
Speaker 1: many of us got to sea across the nation and
Speaker 1: around the world, at least particularly here in the northern hemisphere,
Speaker 1: as we actually should have called this particular full moon
Speaker 1: the full smoke Moon. Sadly, with all the high levels
Speaker 1: of smoke from Canadian wildfires, yes, it's even hard to breathe.
Speaker 1: The moon after it moved on to its full phase
Speaker 1: is actually closest to us on the fourth of July.
Speaker 1: Happy fourth of July. Did you know that the Earth
Speaker 1: is at a position called athelion that's the opposite of Perihelian,
Speaker 1: meaning athelion is the Earth's farthest distance away from the Sun.
Speaker 1: Hard to believe in the northern hemisphere when it's scorching
Speaker 1: hot out, but at that particular time on that date,
Speaker 1: the Earth is some ninety four plus million miles away
Speaker 1: from the Sun. Well, many of us can't wait till
Speaker 1: then fall in winter. But also we find out the
Speaker 1: moon moves on to its last quarter phase on the tenth.
Speaker 1: The great opportunity to see the moon as it rises
Speaker 1: near midnight and is high up in the southern sky
Speaker 1: at least for most of us in North America at
Speaker 1: the time of sunrise. And yes, you can actually see
Speaker 1: the moon in daytime. Many people don't believe that, but
Speaker 1: try that experiment. As I mentioned, with the last quarter moon,
Speaker 1: the moonon continues to wane and moves on to that
Speaker 1: magnificent position. If you're into dark skies, and who isn't
Speaker 1: to see many of the things we'll talk about. We
Speaker 1: call it the new moon or the dark of the moon.
Speaker 1: That takes place on the seventeenth of July. But then
Speaker 1: if you start looking into the west northwest just after sunset,
Speaker 1: by around the eighteenth, sharp eyed observers may get to
Speaker 1: see the beautiful waxing president the moon. But more to it.
Speaker 1: As we move into the Doctor Sky experience with our
Speaker 1: mid July twenty twenty three podcast, we find the moon
Speaker 1: then moves on to its first quarter phase. Another great
Speaker 1: time to look at the moon. Yes, the moon at
Speaker 1: that time will be in your early afternoon sky if
Speaker 1: you know where to look. Don't look towards the sun, obviously,
Speaker 1: but the moon can be visible in the daytime sky,
Speaker 1: but at first quarter great shadow relief with telescopes and blockers.
Speaker 1: But let's talk a little bit more about that dark
Speaker 1: of the moon. As you approach the seventeenth of July,
Speaker 1: if many of you are on vacation or at least
Speaker 1: wish you were, notice that if you have a dark
Speaker 1: location to observe the sky in a great opportunity exists.
Speaker 1: Is that on that particular evening or plus or minus
Speaker 1: a few days around that date, since the moonlight is
Speaker 1: not there, and if you have a dark sky look
Speaker 1: to the south right around ten pm local time you
Speaker 1: will get to see the core of our Milky Way galaxy,
Speaker 1: so easy to see. And the darker your location, you
Speaker 1: may say, well, those are in star clouds. Look your sky,
Speaker 1: those are thunderclouds. Well, you may be right in half
Speaker 1: of the explanation, because obviously in summer the higher incidents
Speaker 1: of thunderstorms do occur. But the point I'm trying to
Speaker 1: make is the star clouds of the Milky Way without
Speaker 1: the presence of thunderclouds are a most magnificent sign. Try
Speaker 1: that as you move through the constellation of Scorpius and Sagittarius.
Speaker 1: Remember Sagittarius is the core of our Milky Way galaxy.
Speaker 1: As you stare at those stars, the stars and Sagittarius
Speaker 1: look reminiscent like that of a teapot. And I encourage
Speaker 1: you to go ahead to play websites like skymaps dot
Speaker 1: com where you can download a free star chart if
Speaker 1: you're not that tech savvy and relying on your smartphone.
Speaker 1: But there's other things to see in our particular sky
Speaker 1: for July, and let's talk a little bit more about planets.
Speaker 1: Did you know that the planet Venus, the goddess of
Speaker 1: love and beauty, is that its brightest on July the ninth.
Speaker 1: That's correct, And if those of you out there then
Speaker 1: have a small telescope, you'll know why Venus is getting
Speaker 1: closer to the Earth right now it's about forty three
Speaker 1: million miles away. By the way, as mentioned many times before,
Speaker 1: Venus gets closest to the Earth than any other major planet.
Speaker 1: It can come within distances of twenty five million miles
Speaker 1: or more. But back to Venus, take a look at
Speaker 1: it in a small telescope and you'll say, wow, it
Speaker 1: looks like a tiny, little fat crescent. Well, that's exactly
Speaker 1: what's happening, is it gets closer. The crescent phase, being
Speaker 1: that it's closer, adds extra light. So simply Venus's brightest
Speaker 1: on the ninth. But slowly, as we move out of
Speaker 1: July and into August, Venus will slowly creep into the
Speaker 1: Sun in the glare of the Sun, that is, and
Speaker 1: you'll get to see it, but be careful gets too close.
Speaker 1: Venus will look like that, almost like a thin, thin,
Speaker 1: waning crescent. Fascinating to see. We find out that there's
Speaker 1: also a nice conjunction of planets by around the tenth
Speaker 1: Take a look for Venus, Mars, and the brilliant star
Speaker 1: Regulus in Leo as they all conjunct within about four
Speaker 1: degrees apart. Then something magical happens on that night. You
Speaker 1: can see Mars six tenth of a degree north northeast
Speaker 1: of the star Regulus. The star is seventy seven light
Speaker 1: years away the principal bright star in the constellation of
Speaker 1: Leo the Lion. On the eleventh, the moon is near
Speaker 1: the planet Jupiter. Yes, Jupiter's coming into our you know,
Speaker 1: late evening early morning sky, and you'll be able to
Speaker 1: see that with no difficulty. As Jupiter, of course, the
Speaker 1: giant of the planets, still shines at a negative two
Speaker 1: point three on the magnitude scale. What does that mean?
Speaker 1: The higher the negative, the brighter the object the sun
Speaker 1: the all time you know, bright killer in the sky
Speaker 1: is minus twenty six point five of the full moon
Speaker 1: could be minus twelve. So if you go down the scale,
Speaker 1: Jupiter's minus two point three is still quite right. Then
Speaker 1: we find out that on the sixteenth Venus is only
Speaker 1: three and a half degrees west southwest of the star Regulous.
Speaker 1: Interesting planetary conjunction. Wrapping it up. By the twenty seventh,
Speaker 1: we have a new planet that comes into the northwestern
Speaker 1: sky as Venus, Mercury, and that star, Regulus and Leo
Speaker 1: all get together within about five point three degrees in
Speaker 1: the evening sky. Fascinating things to see. Well, here's a
Speaker 1: prelude to something happening in August. Just know, folks, that
Speaker 1: the great meteor shower known as the Perseods will actually
Speaker 1: take place as we talk about August eleventh, twelfth, and thirteen.
Speaker 1: More to say about that in future Doctor Sky episodes
Speaker 1: here on the Doctor Sky Podcast and the Doctor Sky Experience.
Speaker 1: But folks, if you're out here in Arizona, join us
Speaker 1: to some of the folks that we really recommend. For
Speaker 1: great food, It's Yao's Chinese Restaurant. They're in Gilbert. They're
Speaker 1: a big supporter of what we do with Doctor Sky
Speaker 1: and Doctor Sky Incorporated. And then the two locations for
Speaker 1: great pizza New York style pizza. How about that for
Speaker 1: all of you New Yorkers out there, We actually have
Speaker 1: real New York pizza here in Arizona. It's Rafael's Pizza
Speaker 1: and Wings located in Glendale and in Phoenix. But, folks,
Speaker 1: Doctor Sky is your navigator on the highway to the Heavens.
Speaker 1: If you have questions in comments, don't hesitate. It's Doctor
Speaker 1: Sky Show at gmail dot com. Let me be your
Speaker 1: personal navigator on the head to the heavens with questions
Speaker 1: and comments and privilege and honor to be with John
Speaker 1: Katz and the Tits, the owner crowd owners of WABC
Speaker 1: Talk Radio seventy seven in New York each week as
Speaker 1: we provide commentary content and of course interesting information from
Speaker 1: these greet realms on the Cat's Roundtable Sunday mornings and
Speaker 1: also biweekly by monthly with Yes Frank Morano on his
Speaker 1: radio program called The Other Side of Midnight when he's
Speaker 1: kind enough to let me change with him the name
Speaker 1: of the show from the well the Other Side of
Speaker 1: Midnight to how about this The Infinite Side of Midnight
Speaker 1: one am Eastern daylight time, every other Wednesday. Check times
Speaker 1: and schedules for more details, But until then, enjoy your summer. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: high temperatures here in Phoenix next week may reach actually
Speaker 1: a near all time record for us. The old time
Speaker 1: record was sent back in nineteen ninety and that of
Speaker 1: course happened on June the twenty six when the temperature
Speaker 1: here in Phoenix, I remember it well, was one hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty two degrees fahrenheit. We are expecting a possible
Speaker 1: one twenty maybe even a one twenty one in the
Speaker 1: days to come, So wherever you're listening, to us. If
Speaker 1: you have cooler weather, we certainly appreciate you and what
Speaker 1: you do learning more about the great things that happen
Speaker 1: in our nighttime skies as we do this. We do
Speaker 1: this for a main reason. It's to expand our minds
Speaker 1: on the great things that are card in the nighttime
Speaker 1: and daytime skies and get prepared, folks for two eclipses
Speaker 1: that are happening solar eclipses. One an annular eclipse on Saturday,
Speaker 1: October the fourteenth, visible across the big swath of in
Speaker 1: the United States. And the major event, the big event
Speaker 1: that we'll be talking more about here on the Doctor
Speaker 1: Sky Experience. You bet, the Great Texas Solar Eclipse, as
Speaker 1: we call it. The eclipse will be a total eclipse
Speaker 1: of the Sun April eighth, twenty twenty four, probably best
Speaker 1: seen in Texas because of the great weather, but that
Speaker 1: arc of totality moves from Texas all the way up
Speaker 1: into Arkansas, in areas of Missouri, into southern Illinois, and
Speaker 1: as it moves across the Great Lakes, downtown Buffalo, New York,
Speaker 1: even areas like Montreal, Canada. A must see event if
Speaker 1: you're interested in the wonders of the nighttime sky and
Speaker 1: who isn't as we talk here on WABC with the
Speaker 1: Doctor's Sky Experience, filling you in on with great information
Speaker 1: about the realms of astronomy, s aviation and weather, and
Speaker 1: other interviews from American exceptionalism. That's the stuff of Doctor Scott.
Speaker 1: Until next time, keep your eyes to the skies.