Speaker 1: Welcome once again to the Doctor Sky Experience, heard exclusively
Speaker 1: here at Radio seventy seven WABC. As we like to say,
Speaker 1: and many around the nation would agree, the crown jewel
Speaker 1: of radio, the iconic seventy seven WABC broadcasting proudly out
Speaker 1: of New York, around the nation, around the world, and
Speaker 1: I'm even confident out into the cosmos. Welcome to another
Speaker 1: edition of the Doctor Sky Experience as we update you
Speaker 1: on some important astronomical events as we move into the
Speaker 1: month number nine, September twenty twenty three. And in the
Speaker 1: short but important report, we'll be focusing on a comet. Now,
Speaker 1: let's remember that comets or the debris left over from
Speaker 1: the creation of the Solar System, and they harbor in
Speaker 1: an area well beyond that of the then planet Pluto
Speaker 1: now dwarf Pluto, out in a region called the Kuyper Boat.
Speaker 1: Probably hundreds of millions of these chunks of ice, maybe
Speaker 1: ranging up from the size of a small automobile all
Speaker 1: the way up to a city size asteroidal type body. Ever,
Speaker 1: so often the hand and gravity of the Sun pulls
Speaker 1: these objects in toward us. Don't fear, because comets have
Speaker 1: been traveling through the Solar system for billions of years,
Speaker 1: but we welcome you to a new one. A comet
Speaker 1: known as C twenty twenty three P one, simply known
Speaker 1: as Comet Nishimurro, discovered by an amateur astronomer back on
Speaker 1: August the eleventh of this year. This comet has the
Speaker 1: promise of potentially being something that you may be able
Speaker 1: to get the sea with the naked eye under the
Speaker 1: darkest of conditions with no moon. But being the eternal
Speaker 1: optimist that doctor Sky is, a pair of binoculars during
Speaker 1: this particular week is probably going to give you your
Speaker 1: best advantage of seeing this interloper into the Solar system.
Speaker 1: The commet will be closest to the Earth on September thirteenth,
Speaker 1: at a distance a safe distance of some seventy nine
Speaker 1: million years, and the best time to view it would
Speaker 1: probably be around the time of September the seventeenth, Now,
Speaker 1: that is if your skies are clear. Moonlight, of course,
Speaker 1: should not interfere as we move to the new moon
Speaker 1: period around the fifteenth of the month. But what will
Speaker 1: happen in the early morning sky up till about the
Speaker 1: seventeenth The comet will be transitioning from the constellation Leo
Speaker 1: a lion moving into Virgo the Virgin, which means on
Speaker 1: or about the seventeenth. The comet will then transition into
Speaker 1: the evening sky and possibly be low in a pair
Speaker 1: of binoculars in the west just after sunset. More details
Speaker 1: on this particular comet can be found at one of
Speaker 1: the great websites that we promote here on the Doctor
Speaker 1: Sky Experience, and that is the Skylive dot Com. Just
Speaker 1: type in in your browser the skylive dot com and
Speaker 1: you'll go to the most amazing website giving you information
Speaker 1: not only about the details of these astronomical events, but
Speaker 1: also in a visual sense. Let's say you're a telescope
Speaker 1: viewer and you want to look at a starfield. You
Speaker 1: want to find an object like this comment. It will
Speaker 1: give you two or three different dimensional views of it,
Speaker 1: how to find it with the naked eye, a pair
Speaker 1: of binoculars, and then what starfield is it in? For
Speaker 1: those of you out there that are more sophisticated and
Speaker 1: have more serious telescoping equivalent, the comet itself is quite
Speaker 1: interesting in the simplest way that I can say it.
Speaker 1: It may get the near naked eye brilliance, but don't
Speaker 1: count on it. Observers are telling us around the world
Speaker 1: that the comet has a tale of about one degree
Speaker 1: in light. Let's talk a little bit more about cometary tales.
Speaker 1: There are a number of comet type tales. The most
Speaker 1: significant is a dust tail, usually easiest to see and
Speaker 1: probably brightens. Is also something called a plasma tail, as
Speaker 1: material is of course streaming through the Solar system and
Speaker 1: the excitation of those photons and the protons on the
Speaker 1: surface of the comet. Remember, the comet is just an
Speaker 1: ice covered chunk of ice and rock, like a very
Speaker 1: icy asteroid body. Once the temperatures of the Sun heat
Speaker 1: it up, something happens in the physics world that's even
Speaker 1: more amazing. We know there's liquid, there's solids, and there's gases,
Speaker 1: But how about this. When some of those very high
Speaker 1: heated energetic protons hit the surface of that icy comet,
Speaker 1: the comet transitions from ice to gas and bypasses the
Speaker 1: liquid stage. For those of you physics fans out there,
Speaker 1: you might remember the term, it's called sublimation. But comet
Speaker 1: tails can be quite interesting. I remember observing, maybe many
Speaker 1: of you out there, some commets over history that have
Speaker 1: had extensive lengths. Let's go back to the year nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety six when Comet Yagutaki was visible. I remember from
Speaker 1: the Arizona Desert. No exaggeration needed. The comet tail stretched
Speaker 1: about one hundred and sixty degrees across the sky, almost
Speaker 1: in the dark of night. Look like there was a
Speaker 1: serious aircraft up there with a gigantic contrail. No, that
Speaker 1: was an object some eight to nine million miles away
Speaker 1: and producing a tail in space that was hundreds of
Speaker 1: millions of miles long. Comets have always been very much
Speaker 1: in the news. We know the great history of mankind's commet,
Speaker 1: Alley's comet, which won't return to us till the year
Speaker 1: twenty sixty one or so, and hopefully you will be
Speaker 1: around to see it. I don't think I will, because
Speaker 1: I'm sixty seven at this point. But the important thing
Speaker 1: about comets sometimes in history they've been referred to as
Speaker 1: portens of doom. Well I don't think so, but in history,
Speaker 1: if you do the research, comets have always always put
Speaker 1: fear into humanity, and there's great stories about We'll continue
Speaker 1: with the Doctor Sky experience by reminding you the position
Speaker 1: of the moon. The moon now goes to new on
Speaker 1: the fifteenth for those of you looking to disguise for
Speaker 1: very faint celestial objects like galaxies, clusters, and such, that
Speaker 1: particular time period around September fifteenth just has your name
Speaker 1: written over The moon then continues to wax in our sky.
Speaker 1: The moon will be near the planet Mars, which is
Speaker 1: very low in the northwest and west in the evening.
Speaker 1: On the evening of the sixteenth, we find out the
Speaker 1: moon is near the brilliant star Speka in the constellation Virgo.
Speaker 1: As we move on to the seventeenth, the moon passes
Speaker 1: the brilliant super giant star Ontaries in Scorpio as it
Speaker 1: continues to race around us on the twenty first, first
Speaker 1: quarter moon again on the twenty second. But how about this.
Speaker 1: As we move on to the autumnal equinox on the
Speaker 1: twenty third of September, we find out that another of
Speaker 1: the great and the last for this year of great
Speaker 1: supermoons will occur on the evening of the twenty ninth,
Speaker 1: referring to the beauty of the super full harvest moon,
Speaker 1: one of the most beautiful and romantic moons of old time.
Speaker 1: What makes a harvest moon so special? It's the moon
Speaker 1: that's closest to the autumnax, and in days gone by
Speaker 1: when we were much more of an agricultural society, you
Speaker 1: could harvest crops by the light of the moon, because
Speaker 1: the moon will be in the sky soon, if not
Speaker 1: already at the sunset time, giving farmers of the time
Speaker 1: the obvious ability to harvest crops that is, with the
Speaker 1: beautiful full moon, by the light of the moon itself.
Speaker 1: Don't forget to join us on the Cats Around Table
Speaker 1: every Sunday with owner John Katzimatitis, and also every other
Speaker 1: Wednesday morning as we move through time and space with
Speaker 1: Frank Morano on the very popular show here on talk
Speaker 1: radio seventy seven w ABC, the other side of Midnight.
Speaker 1: Frank gives us permission to change the name of the show,
Speaker 1: albeit just temporarily, for that one hour to the infinite
Speaker 1: side of midnine. If you have any questions or comments,
Speaker 1: my email is simple. It's doctor Sky Drsky Show at
Speaker 1: gmail dot com. What do we always remind you? Simply
Speaker 1: always remember to keep your feet on the ground, but
Speaker 1: your eyes to the skies. And every time I do
Speaker 1: these programs, I'm simply trying to earn your confidence to
Speaker 1: be your navigator on the highway. To the heavens, good
Speaker 1: luck and seeing commet Nishimura. Many more comets and other
Speaker 1: amazing celestial objects are going to happen during the next
Speaker 1: couple of months, and don't forget put it on your
Speaker 1: calendar no matter where you're listening. The big annular eclipse
Speaker 1: of the Sun that occurs for much of the United
Speaker 1: States in the Western region on Saturday, October the fourteenth,
Speaker 1: But the big Granddaddy of total soilar eclipses. Still time
Speaker 1: to prepare and we'll be doing a lot about it,
Speaker 1: that is, as you move toward April eighth, twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: Clear skies and health to all. Thank you for listening
Speaker 1: to the Doctor Sky Experience here on Talk Radio seventy
Speaker 1: seven WABC, literally the crown Jewel of radio, the iconic
Speaker 1: seventy seven Talk Radio with the Doctor Sky Your hands