Podcaster: Dr. Al Grauer
Title: Travelers in the Night Digest:Eps. 393 & 394: Newest Moons and Tiny Beasts
Organization: Travelers in The Night
Link : Travelers in the Night ; @Nmcanopus
Description: Today’s 2 topics:
- A calendar based on the first visibility of the lunar crescent is difficult to predict in advance since this observation depends on the clarity of the atmosphere and other local conditions.
- Recent scientific estimates suggest that a typical human being has approximately the same number of bacteria and other microbes as they do actual human cells.
Bio: Dr. Al Grauer is currently an observing member of the Catalina Sky Survey Team at the University of Arizona. This group has discovered nearly half of the Earth approaching objects known to exist. He received a PhD in Physics in 1971 and has been an observational Astronomer for 43 years. He retired as a University Professor after 39 years of interacting with students. He has conducted research projects using telescopes in Arizona, Chile, Australia, Hawaii, Louisiana, and Georgia with funding from NSF and NASA.
He is noted as Co-discoverer of comet P/2010 TO20 Linear-Grauer, Discoverer of comet C/2009 U5 Grauer and has asteroid 18871 Grauer named for him.
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Transcript:
393 – Newest Moon
The moon cycle from new moon through full moon and back to new moon again was used by many nations to regulate their activities and forms the basis of the Islamic lunar calendar. A calendar based on the first visibility of the lunar crescent is difficult to predict in advance since this observation depends on the clarity of the atmosphere and other local conditions. The interesting observational problem of when it is possible to spot the new moon has been analyzed in the scientific literature as an aid to historians who are seeking to interpret the writings of ancient civilizations.
You might try making this interesting observation yourself. In the first 2 days after the new moon the lunar crescent is low in the western twilight shortly after sunset. Naked eye sightings have been reported as early as 15.5 hours following the new moon while observers using telescopes have been able to spot the thin lunar crescent 12 hours and a few minutes after the exact time of new moon. You need to be careful if you use a telescope when the Sun is still up so that you don’t become a member of the one eyed observers club. For observers in the mid northern latitudes the months near the spring equinox are the best to spot the thin lunar crescent since at that time the Moon’s path makes a steep angle upward relative to the western horizon. Observers south of the equator are given the same favorable opportunity to make the first observation of the new Moon around the fall equinox.
If you have witnessed either a total or partial solar eclipse you have seen the Moon a few minutes after it was new and well before the thin lunar crescent is visible in the western sky after sunset.
394 – Tiny Beasts
Humans have a long history of partnerships with a variety of micro organisms. Although the proportions vary widely with individuals, recent scientific estimates suggest that a typical human being has approximately the same number of bacteria and other microbes as they do actual human cells. Now it appears that a partnership with yeast and algae will enable spacefaring humans to use their waste products to produce food and plastics during long duration space flights. Dr. Mark Blenner of Clemson University leads a research group developing strains of yeast which obtain their nitrogen from untreated urine and their carbon dioxide from exhaled breath or the Martian atmosphere which has been converted into yeast food by algae. One of Blenner’s yeast strains produces omega-3 fatty acids which are essential for heart, eye, and brain health while another strain of yeast has been engineered to produce polyester polymers which could be used by 3D printers to produce plastic tools and other useful devices. In the future research Blenner’s team will focus on increasing the output of these tiny beasts to the point that they will generate useful amounts of nutrients and plastics from astronaut’s waste products. This new research when added to the fact that on the International Space Station space travelers now routinely drink recycled water from their urine, sweat, and showers moves us closer to the day when space travelers literally use and reuse every atom that they lift from the Earth’s surface enabling journeys that may last for years.
The flip side of our partnership with microorganisms is that it is extremely difficult to protect the worlds we explore from a microorganism invasion which would threaten their home grown biology.
For Travelers in the Night this is Dr. Al Grauer.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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