Podcaster: Shane and Chris
Title: Objects to Observe in the June 2021 Night Sky
Organization: Actual Astronomy
Link : https://actualastronomy.podbean.com/
Description: The Actual Astronomy Podcast presents Objects to Observe in the June 2021 Night Sky and places a focus on sky events to help you find the planets as Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Mercury and Venus meet up with each other and the Moon. With the planets getting higher we also begin to describe what you can see on them with a telescope. We also talk about the annular solar eclipse and how to view it safely.
Bio: Shane and Chris are amateur astronomers who enjoy teaching astronomy classes and performing outreach where they help the eyes of the public to telescope eyepieces.
Today’s sponsor: Big thanks to our Patreon supporters this month: David Bowes, Dustin A Ruoff, Brett Duane, Kim Hay, Nik Whitehead, Timo Sievänen, Michael Freedman, Paul Fischer, Rani Bush, Karl Bewley, Joko Danar, Steven Emert, Frank Tippin, Steven Jansen, Barbara Geier, Don Swartwout, James K. Wood, Katrina Ince, Michael Lewinger, Phyllis Simon Foster, Nicolo DePierro, Tim Smith, Frank Frankovic, Steve Nerlich
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Transcript:
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Chris Beckett: Welcome to episode 123 of the actual astronomy podcast, this is the objects to observe in the June 2021 night sky edition i’m Chris and joining me is shane.
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Chris Beckett: We are amateur astronomers we love, looking at the night sky and this podcast and our podcast is for anyone else who likes going out under the stars shane we should we should mention something first, and that is that you know these quote on the 365.
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Chris Beckett: Days of astronomy and we release we actually really two episodes a week sort of sort of on our own, and a couple episodes a month through.
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Chris Beckett: The 365 days of astronomy which is awesome, but I think now we have over 120 podcasts individual episodes that we’ve recorded over the past year and a month.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah you know great point and some of those podcasts or stale data, meaning, you know, there was information about a particular event or you know what to observe during a.
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Shane Ludtke: particular period, but many of the woods, are very like reusable or still relevant you know we talked a lot about gear some of the constellation talks that we do are still valid, and if the constellation isn’t visible right now just wait six months and it probably will be so definitely.
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Shane Ludtke: A check out the backlog if you know if this kind of podcast appeals to you if you’re a visual observer.
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Chris Beckett: yeah sounds good.
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Shane Ludtke: and
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Chris Beckett: We often put in, like the the variable of the month we we’ve been doing that for a couple months now, since we talked to Dr Stella Kafka was who was in one of our previous 365 days of astronomy episodes.
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Chris Beckett: And, and this month, though with our recording cadence we still have them a one went up there when we’re recording this so we we encourage people to go to the.
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Chris Beckett: ABS so web page had ABS so.org and then you can you can look up the variable star of the month, if if you’re into variable stars and they’ll have a Have a nice video up there, by the time I think, by the time this podcast goes live.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah yeah.
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Chris Beckett: All right.
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Shane Ludtke: Good so device good recommendation.
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Chris Beckett: sounds good so for for objects that we’re looking at we’ve got we’ve got some some interesting events that are happening this month recently there was a lunar eclipse.
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Shane Ludtke: On.
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Chris Beckett: On the 26th of May, and I did we had some listener photos that were sent in there were really cool to see.
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Chris Beckett: And then I was, I was watching it just.
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Chris Beckett: not live online, but I watched some recordings of it out of the southern hemisphere, which was really cool to see.
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Chris Beckett: And then we’ll also have a sort of the beacon joining annular solar eclipse that’s going to happen this month.
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Chris Beckett: Although I think for for traveling to that it’s it’s probably not recommended anyway from from where we are to where it is.
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Chris Beckett: In our country there’s there’s a very large coven 19 outbreak, unfortunately, so there stay at home orders between where we live in and between for the eclipses so we’re not traveling for it this year, unfortunately.
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Shane Ludtke: No it’s too bad you and I talked about this probably six to 12 months ago about potentially making the journey, and you know, I was.
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Shane Ludtke: I was definitely excited at the potential, but also very cognizant of the coven potential impact, and unfortunately yeah we won’t be able to.
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Shane Ludtke: Make that drive, but for those that are near the annular that so that’s a pretty cool thing to see and definitely put it on your calendar I guess we’ll talk about that here, probably shortly.
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Chris Beckett: yeah and then we have a decent planetary lineup this month of Venus moon and the MARS the planet Mars around mid month should be good.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah yeah lots to look at.
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Chris Beckett: So mercury mercury is really too close to observe in the in the June 2021 night sky and Mars is moving West from Gemini.
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Chris Beckett: Well Venus moves East from tourists and they both eventually end up in cancer, which is sort of like.
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Chris Beckett: Of a mid spring constellation so, then that means that these these are going to be getting very much into the Western sky.
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Chris Beckett: during the evening time and really there’s not much to see on March, and I think you were the last person, I know that that took a look for much on Mars and it’s getting pretty small now, I think.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah yeah it’s it’s almost stellar in appearance, meaning it almost appears like a star even through optics.
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Shane Ludtke: You know Mars Mars is a pretty small planet and it’s quite a long ways away from us so as it’s.
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Shane Ludtke: Gaining distance from earth and due to its small size, it just it’s hard to resolve it, even as a disk with a modest telescope.
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Shane Ludtke: nevermind trying to see any of the surface features, so you know at most you’ll probably just see a small red or orange circle and it might even just be a small orange ready star like.
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Chris Beckett: yeah Venus Venus on the horizon and there’s some pairings with Venus to be worth looking at maybe with with binoculars or small telescopes but, of course, enter in the northern hemisphere, where we are.
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Chris Beckett: This is the time of year, where our dark skies are very much reduced by the height of the sun in the sky and and, in fact, where we live, we get perpetual twilight for about five or six weeks here now, and so, with that.
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Chris Beckett: You know, we may be able to see Venus will be very low on the horizon, when we do the further south you get though and hemisphere Venus becomes a more attractive object.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah yeah for sure i’m looking forward to that we you and I did a lot of Venus observing last year, trying to see some of the detail within the clouds and we were successful, and I want to try it again.
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Chris Beckett: yeah I am i’m i’m eager to do that as well, I think, probably the better bet is going to be later on the year what What did you see as far as detail goes on Venus last year.
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Shane Ludtke: Well, like there’s sort of a like a sideways V that would stand out a little bit to me.
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Shane Ludtke: Then I have to check my observing notes, I felt like there is kind of.
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Shane Ludtke: Like some bright blushes or.
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Shane Ludtke: slots almost if I remember correctly.
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Shane Ludtke: And then of course there’s just the phases of Venus right it’s similar to our moon in a way, in that it has different phases that you’ll be able to see through a telescope.
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Chris Beckett: yeah and I had some some pretty good conditions from time to time and made some made some decent sketches of it and then.
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Chris Beckett: I was actually writing a journal article about about you know sort of whether or not, can you can you see the cloud top some Venus and, just as I was putting it together, there was an individual in in in Europe.
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Chris Beckett: And I think they were in France and so about as close.
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Chris Beckett: As, as you can be and still be in Europe to where we are, which is still you know eight or nine hours time difference, but they did capture within that 12 hour period anyway.
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Chris Beckett: similar features to what I had sketch, and so I was able to kind of get get their permission and use those in my article and and you can actually see that.
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Chris Beckett: That while the clouds that had actually shifted a little bit and had maybe sort of broken apart, or something like that.
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Chris Beckett: Between when when the photo was taken, and when my observations were taken that sort of undoubtedly they were they were very likely.
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Chris Beckett: The same features that seems unlikely that coincidentally, I would have sketched this sort of strange why structure on Venus and then and then just within a.
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Chris Beckett: 12 hour period of time somebody would have taken an image of of a sort of a broken why structure on Venus and then you know sort of get this this pole.
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Chris Beckett: Light you know very light shading very bright white clouds on the pole which I also had head put in, so it is from from you know good skies and small telescopes you can actually make out some some features on Venus how it is possible.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah and if if anybody attempts these Venus observations, be aware that these features do not jump out at you they’re not they’re not.
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Shane Ludtke: super easy to see like it’s not like seeing the bands on Jupiter or saturn’s rings seeing any kind of Venus detail really requires a lot of time at the eyepiece a lot of patience.
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Shane Ludtke: You know you kind of need to wait for a you just need generally good sky conditions, but then also.
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Shane Ludtke: While at the eyepiece the seeing kind of varies because Venus is so low in the horizon and you just have to wait for those real real brief moments of clarity.
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Shane Ludtke: And then, sometimes this detail will pop out, but you can also go multiple nights on end without really seeing any of this and then all of a sudden, you know it’ll be there, so persistence and patience is required for any sort of Venus.
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Chris Beckett: Be down, I always like to think of observing Venus is a lot like fishing there’s a lot of sitting around in the boat with your line cast into the water and you just been to enjoy that experience, if you if you don’t you’re not gonna you’re not gonna catch any fish.
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Shane Ludtke: Good analogy.
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Chris Beckett: Some easier fish to catch.
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Chris Beckett: Our Jupiter and Saturn.
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Chris Beckett: And these are the giant the gas giants that are continuing along there they’re somewhat separate ways though there’s still sort of in the sky, at the same time, when.
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Chris Beckett: When they’re both sort of getting towards their their maximum height that we’re going to see the man in the morning skies.
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Chris Beckett: Down there in capricornus well Jupiter just coming into aquarius now but they’re both high enough in the morning sky to become really good telescopic targets have you been able to see them, yet this season.
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Shane Ludtke: No, not yet.
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Shane Ludtke: On you know, most of our listeners, I think, know this by now i’m not much of a morning wake up in the morning at 3am observer I i’d much rather stay up until three, but so not yet for me, but I think you did.
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Chris Beckett: yeah I am somebody who likes to get up in the middle of the night, and this is one of the reasons, how I think, maybe.
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Chris Beckett: I became so latched on to astronomy and early age of it often wake up at two or three o’clock in the morning and then just be up and.
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Chris Beckett: You know, when I get into astronomy I would I would make good use that time, as I had been recently and started making some Jupiter and Saturn observations and.
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Chris Beckett: And yesterday morning, which is sort of one of the last days of May.
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Chris Beckett: had some great views of the cloud bands of Jupiter and the beautiful rings of Saturn I could just barely see the Cassini division, which is a large CAP.
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Chris Beckett: In the Rings of Saturn using just over 100 power in a in a 16 millimeter telescope which is just a very small telescope i’m not using anything.
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Chris Beckett: Anything really that large it’s just a good quality little telescope and yeah they’re now high enough in the morning sky for us anyway we’re at 50 degrees North latitude and so for those south of us if you do get up in the morning.
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Chris Beckett: And these these nights of the week, we have to get up in the middle of the night if you’re much further south, you can get up.
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Chris Beckett: A little bit later, maybe four or five o’clock in the morning, even if you’re far enough so to see them in your in your soul.
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Chris Beckett: into the soul of the eastern sky you’ll see Jupiter is extremely bright now and and then Saturn is is a fair bit fainter and it’s almost do so with by the time the sky is getting quite bright Saturn being being more than just just tie into the into the southeast.
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Shane Ludtke: huh yeah i’m looking forward to them, you know getting higher and higher in the sky earlier and earlier in the night, so that becomes a little more accessible.
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Chris Beckett: yeah we’ll talk about how to how to track them down like maybe for people that are these are sort of like telescopic stuff we’ll talk about.
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Chris Beckett: How to how to kind of track them down if you haven’t even really seen them before you can see, with them with your eye.
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Chris Beckett: Neptune and uranus though to kind of sort of close it or planets there too low or too low on the horizon to really see and.
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Chris Beckett: Apart from some lunar pairings which we mentioned that they’re not really visible so June 1 so rate at the start of June that is going to be on Tuesday I think this will come out on Thursday so be a little bit past that but for those that are subscribers maybe they’ll get this early.
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Chris Beckett: June 1 Jupiter is going to be just five degrees north of the moon, so in the same binocular field.
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Chris Beckett: You know if you have a decent wide field pair of binoculars you’ll be able to see this pairing and even if even if you’re hearing this after that time.
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Chris Beckett: You can always go to a website like sky maps.com and you can download their free sky out there, and you can actually.
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Chris Beckett: See on the Left column there’s this page, it has a star chart and on the Left column there’s a list of wendy’s pairings occur.
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Chris Beckett: And you should know that that on on many months the moon will pair up with the planets nearby in the sky and then that can help point them out so next month, this might fall on on a better date for us to see, and then on the second.
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Chris Beckett: that’s going to be the last quarter moon so anyways we get into the sixth the asteroid Juno reaches opposition and it’s going to be at 92 10.1.
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Chris Beckett: it’s located in the constellation and it’s sort of on on the left side see if you want to see an asteroid if you want to see the asteroid Juno.
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Chris Beckett: And this is probably your best chance for the year but it’s fairly faint I don’t know if any of you ever tracked down a 10th magnitude asteroid before.
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Shane Ludtke: No, I really don’t spend a lot of time with asteroids but you know anything that is a moving object in our solar system, I do find interesting and I might give this a try.
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Shane Ludtke: Just to see what you know if I can capture it or not.
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Chris Beckett: So, how would you observe if you’re going to go out and try to observe so 10th man to do first of all, this is this is faint enough that you really going to need to have.
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Chris Beckett: Like a good little boat three inch telescope or so, I think, to have a have a decent chance of seeing from from reason the dark side correct.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah for sure yeah you would definitely need at least three inches of aperture.
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Shane Ludtke: dark site would help and then what you would want to do is try to observe this at the start of your session, and what I would do is is a.
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Shane Ludtke: The best thing to do would be to sketch what you think is the asteroid as well as all of the stars around it in that field and then come back to it in a couple of hours to see if what you think is the asteroid has excuse me has moved in relation to those background stars.
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Shane Ludtke: And then that’s how you really confirm whether or not you.
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Shane Ludtke: You captured the asteroid because it will just look like another star don’t don’t we should set the expectation that you’re not going to see any surface detail on these things.
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Shane Ludtke: It is really just a point of light.
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Shane Ludtke: And it doesn’t move enough in the eyepiece typically where you can kind of watch it just pass by.
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Shane Ludtke: So it does help to like I say record its position at one point in the night and then come back to it, to see if it’s moved.
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Chris Beckett: yeah and I only just raise that, because this is just when it when it reaches up as a student it’s noted.
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Chris Beckett: You know some of the stuff that we that we do mention here, it might be difficult to senior me, so why don’t we included well, the reason why is that.
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Chris Beckett: This is actually out there on the fields like if you if you look around at sit like geno is that opposition tonight and will, how would you go in and see it or it’s set up position.
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Chris Beckett: In June, so it’s the best time to see Juno at the asteroid However it this, this would be I think difficult for most people to accomplish so.
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Chris Beckett: that’s one of the reasons why we put some of this stuff in so that if.
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Chris Beckett: People are reading that in places, then, then they can kind of kind of looked at and say, well, can actually see that or not.
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Chris Beckett: I think this is something that.
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Chris Beckett: That somebody who was sort of an inexperienced amateur astronomer might find interesting, but I think for for a lot of people, especially those that don’t have telescopes and might be just looking at the sky with binoculars this this one, I think, is going to be too challenging.
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Chris Beckett: Agreed yeah moving up this one’s a little easier, but but, again, not not too eventful on June 7 we have uranus.
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Chris Beckett: Which is just going to be two degrees north of the moon, so this will actually fit in the field of even like a medium sized guy like maybe even like a six or an eight inch telescope we get them in the same field but it’s very low.
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Chris Beckett: In the morning in the morning twilight, so I think I think again, that that is is just Probably not.
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Chris Beckett: going to be something that that I would say, get up and take a look for shane if i’m up I might take a look, I see that, for as it occurs, the best opportunity, according to my software is going to be at approximately four o’clock in the morning, so.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah I think I think if I was up at that time I would be spending my time on Saturn and Jupiter.
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Chris Beckett: That you’re going to see drinking coffee.
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Shane Ludtke: Well, that to be definitely a coffee very close to me.
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Chris Beckett: yeah I know yeah it’s.
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Definitely.
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Chris Beckett: One of those things so but June 10 this is kind of the sort of the big event for the month is the annular solar eclipses put this morning out first that annular eclipse is not.
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Chris Beckett: A total eclipse of the sun is it.
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Chris Beckett: What is an annular eclipse Jane What is the difference between a total eclipse in an annular eclipse and what does it mean for people who want to go and observe and eclipse.
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Shane Ludtke: Right so they’re actually sort of connected like when there’s an annular.
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Shane Ludtke: eclipse that’s typically a precursor to a total eclipse I believe it’s a precursor.
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Shane Ludtke: and
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Shane Ludtke: They kind of happen in close proximity to each other in terms of the calendar.
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Shane Ludtke: Now a total eclipse is one of the most spectacular things, I think that you can ever see with your eyes and.
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Shane Ludtke: And that’s when, during the daytime the sun is up in the sky, the moon will pass exactly in front of the sun from a point on the earth like there’s a totality path that you have to be within to see this.
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Shane Ludtke: And when the moon during a total eclipse the distance you know of the sun, the earth, the moon is such that the moon is basically the same size and the sky is how the sun appears and then blocks.
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Shane Ludtke: Basically, all of the sunlight and during a total eclipse during the brief moment of totality you can actually view the sun, without any protection on your eyes.
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Shane Ludtke: And you’re not really actually seeing the sun you’re seeing the moon in front of it but there’s some neat like diamond ring effects that that.
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Shane Ludtke: are just spectacular to see so that’s a total eclipse in annular.
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Shane Ludtke: That spacing is a little bit different between the sun earth moon and essentially the same process is happening, where the moon is passing in front of the sun during the daytime.
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Shane Ludtke: But it’s not blocking out all of the sunlight, in fact, there will be if you’re on the path of totality for for an annular.
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Shane Ludtke: You know there’ll be a very bright ring of sunlight, all the way around the moon.
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Shane Ludtke: And this will damage your eyes cause permanent damage potentially blindness.
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Shane Ludtke: So you still require protection or you know proper filtering 100% of the time during an annular solar eclipse.
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Chris Beckett: yeah so warning do not look at an annular eclipse without special eclipse glasses that you’ve sourced from a reputable source that have the ISO seal and also.
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Chris Beckett: You know you can’t look at it through a telescope that doesn’t have a proper solar filter and if you have any kind of question about how any of that works or anything.
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Chris Beckett: The best thing to do is to reach out to your local astronomy club and they will connect you with with how to see that event see if the if it’s.
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Chris Beckett: visible in your area and and for example shane.
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Chris Beckett: Now i’ve got a lot of the the special solar glasses and filters, but, honestly, when I really want to get it get a good look at the sun I I reached out to you because you’re the solar observer between the two of us, and then I kind of asked for a look through your telescope.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah yeah and you know the views through a telescope with the right filtering are phenomenal and.
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Shane Ludtke: You know if you’re if you’re in the path of this annular I would definitely make every attempt at observing it whether it’s with your own gear, with the right filtering or like Chris said.
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Shane Ludtke: You know meeting up like well, I guess, with the coven there may not be as many public outreach events, but if there is a public outreach event being hosted by a local club.
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Shane Ludtke: check it out, you know it’ll be a neat.
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Shane Ludtke: neat thing to observe.
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Chris Beckett: yeah and the areas that it’s visible at our I think northern Russia.
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Chris Beckett: Greenland and northeastern North America, it actually comes not too too far from here.
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Chris Beckett: Being a.
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Chris Beckett: 1300 kilometer drive.
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Chris Beckett: From where we live in saskatchewan.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah yeah that’s a little ways away, and unfortunately we won’t be able to do that.
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Chris Beckett: Oh that’s right because there is a 600 kilometer no go zone, right now, unfortunately, the the largest outbreak of coven.
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Chris Beckett: In North America, one of the largest outbreaks of covert in the world, unfortunately it’s it’s getting much better here it’s getting much better in the rest of Canada, but between us and we’re that eclipse is is you know goes on right now.
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Unfortunately.
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Chris Beckett: And we’re not really expecting that to change enough by that date, if it does, though I think I think I have a habit spirit day off that I can then I can pull out of the hat and.
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Chris Beckett: I recently tried to make sure that that things are going very well at work and and fingers crossed and i’ve i’ve got enough chits in the JAR that that I could I could pull out the day if if things get get really, really good here over the next few weeks couple of weeks, I guess.
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Shane Ludtke: well.
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Shane Ludtke: Hopefully it works out.
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Chris Beckett: yeah there’s there’s great information on the NASA website, if you go to nasa.gov there’s great information there about where the eclipse is occurring but, again, we say.
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Chris Beckett: Do not look at the sun, this is not a an opportunity to look at the sun in any way whatsoever if you do look at the sun.
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Chris Beckett: It definitely will cause some damage to your eye and like shane said it can even cause blindness, so we do.
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Chris Beckett: Give that caveat, and I did I was, I was going through this in my astronomy class that I teach and even after I gave all those warnings, I had somebody contact me and say.
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Chris Beckett: I want to go and see it, I said well what kind of solar safety protection, do you have and the person said no, and I said.
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Chris Beckett: You cannot view it, you need you need solar safety glasses, or you need a special telescope and if if you’re not really sure about all that.
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Chris Beckett: Then, then you just can’t be going going to take a look at the sun, this is not something you can see, without without significant solar protection and.
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Chris Beckett: And having this solar safety glasses, which looks like a mile or filter other I think they sell some polymer ones.
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Chris Beckett: Now to they’re available on the Internet and certainly there’s there’s lots of this year round, I have some of them, but of course during Kovac times we’re not getting together with people to hand them out, unfortunately.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah yeah.
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Shane Ludtke: Oh well, what to do.
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Chris Beckett: yeah well catch the next one yeah I kind of thought we might drive up for that, because it’s a it’d be a 12 hour drive, we would just have to stay in the coven zone.
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Chris Beckett: To make unfortunately we’d have to stay over there at least one night so.
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Chris Beckett: that’s that’s probably not happening alright so on June 11 we’re going to have Venus and the moon in the western sky and this is going to happen, right after sunset, and this is something that’s safe to look at and.
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Chris Beckett: In summary, I should say this in some areas they’re just going to be a degree and a half apart, but I think for us shane it looks like they’re almost closer to 10 degrees apart and how far is is 10 degrees for those that that don’t know what a degree is.
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Shane Ludtke: If if you hold your arm out like straighten it out and make a fist and then hold that fist up against the sky.
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Shane Ludtke: The width of your fist is about 10 degrees in the sky and it just holds true for no matter how tall or short, you are, because just about you know we’re all sort of built in with the same proportions that that will hold true for everybody, for the most part.
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Chris Beckett: yeah, so I think in eastern North America, I think, just just.
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Chris Beckett: Looking at my my charts here i’m thinking that they’re going to be a little bit closer probably you know favoring the further east ego and.
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Chris Beckett: And maybe like the UK and I know like we have listeners in the UK and and this, I think there might be it might almost be on the other side, it might be might be seven or eight degrees.
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Chris Beckett: On the, on the other side of Venus but i’ll be curious to know, I know that they will chime in and and let me know how my celestial forecasting goes.
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yeah.
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Chris Beckett: So on the 12th we’re going to get a bit of an alignment there with Venus the moon and Mars actually being aligned in the sky.
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Chris Beckett: So they’re going to they’re going to be lined up and now they’re going to be sort of spaced out.
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Chris Beckett: it’s going to be more like something you’re going to see just with your eye, but sort of looking up from the south so Western horizon.
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Chris Beckett: you’re going to see Venus very bright on the horizon and then just above until the left or to the North East you’re going to see the moon, and then almost equal distance to the north.
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Chris Beckett: East you’re going to see Mars forming the sort of Arc in the sky, and I think that this.
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Chris Beckett: is really for the most part, considering most people aren’t going to see the eclipse and they’re not going to have the special gear that you really need to look at it, some people will.
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Chris Beckett: Some people might be in that area, but I think that this alignment of Venus the moon and Mars, is something that people looking at the sky, to the West, on the evening of June 12 are going to see and say that looks like that’s going to look like a beautiful sight for taking photo.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah you know I think it’s a great opportunity, and like you said you don’t really need to specialize gear, you can just use what you have.
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Chris Beckett: yeah I think like with with binoculars you can kind of visit each of those if you have really wide angle binoculars like a nine or an old pair of binoculars and they give you 10 or 11 degrees.
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Chris Beckett: You may be able to get like Venus than the moon, and the moon, and then then Mars, but, but I think after after closest points there around like like you said about 10 degrees for the fist at arm’s length.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah yeah for sure.
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Chris Beckett: And you should be able to see that one because it’s right in the it’s right in the evening it’s it’s it’s it’s right around that time shane.
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Shane Ludtke: she’s.
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Chris Beckett: Good stuff on the 13th the moon and Mars they kind of they kind of get within a decent close approach and the best time, we can see it.
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Chris Beckett: Here in saskatchewan is going to be book 10pm but yeah in the early evening, no matter where you are on earth you’re going to be able to see.
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Chris Beckett: The moon and Mars pair up as closest three degrees even I think in here they’re both four degrees for us so within well within the view of a pair of binoculars so if you’re wondering about seeing a planet.
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Chris Beckett: Like Mars, all you need is a pair of binoculars and, on the evening of the 13th you can just use your binoculars and put Mayra sort of in the upper left or to the north.
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Chris Beckett: East and then in the bottom right to this south west you’re going to see Mars.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah you know there’s the nice thing of these close pairings is it gives people an opportunity to easily find an observer planet because everybody can find the moon.
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Shane Ludtke: And sometimes finding a planet is a little more difficult, but June the 13th is a great opportunity to see Mars.
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Shane Ludtke: Now we talked a little bit about Mars detail at the start of this episode, even with a telescope unless you have a huge telescope you’re likely not going to see any of the detail on Mars, but.
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Shane Ludtke: the moon, even through binoculars excuse me, looks phenomenal and then to have the moon paired with you know this orange planet is going to be a neat thing to see.
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Chris Beckett: And it’s fun like like so you know you can see the moon on on many nights and and you know Mars like like we’re saying just kind of looks like a star.
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Chris Beckett: You know, like in in our own little group of of amateur astronomers on these nights if it’s looking clear like you know we get busy with life and and make it focused on on other things, and then one of us will will sort of.
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Chris Beckett: send a text out saying hey it’s it’s clear, and this is the night when the moon and Mars are together in the sky take a look at it with your binoculars and then we’ll get i’ll say hey it looks like it’s five degrees apart and some people say no it’s for, and it was stuff like that.
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Chris Beckett: But they do look really pretty in the sky together and because it’s not something you can see just on any given night there is there is a special nature to it, you know.
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Chris Beckett: That it will occur sort of a few times over the course of a few months, and then and then not occur for for an extended period of time.
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Shane Ludtke: Right yep.
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Chris Beckett: So the 18th of June that’s when we have our first quarter moon, and then on the 21st we have the summer solstice.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah yeah which is sort of a you know to me it’s like a double edged sword, you know the summer solstice represents the longest day of the year, the most amount of sunshine.
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Shane Ludtke: Now the good news is that every day after that the nights get longer which is awesome for astronomers because we get more opportunity to observe, but for us in the northern latitudes that also means we’re getting closer to winter, as every day gets a little shorter.
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Shane Ludtke: We know that you know winter is coming so that’s the double edged sword aspect of it, for me, but.
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Shane Ludtke: You know, as an astronomer June is is a bit of a month, where you know you change your observing habits, because, at least where we live, Chris in the northern latitudes here at about 50 degrees it just really doesn’t get dark for us, you know until probably the third week of July.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah and then you know progressively darker darker darker or I shouldn’t say darker but the dark.
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Shane Ludtke: period of the night grows it last longer as the calendars you know continues to turn.
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Chris Beckett: yeah and it’s something so i’m i’m originally from area areas a little bit further south.
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Chris Beckett: And I think that this is about the point at which you really notice it, because when I moved here night I never been able to fully adjust to it.
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Chris Beckett: I wasn’t watching the clock last evening and.
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Chris Beckett: It was still break, I said to my spouse and said hey let’s let’s go for a walk you know it’s still kind of bright outside we know for a walk we were watching a movie.
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Chris Beckett: And then we came home and we finished March the movie and I looked at my watch and it was 11 and I was like whoa it’s getting late, and it was just getting dark.
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Chris Beckett: It was just getting dark at 11pm here and we’ve still got three weeks to go before the solstice.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah yeah exactly so you know, looking forward to it just so that we can get back to some dark sky observing.
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Chris Beckett: yeah i’ll never forget, I was at a conference.
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Chris Beckett: Almost almost again the distance North as as we are, from where I grew up and.
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Chris Beckett: I was at this conference, and it was one of those things where people are getting up at the end of the conference and giving speeches and.
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Chris Beckett: We had like a meal and the meal kind of went on for a while, but I was sitting with with a bunch of my astronomy conference friends and we were having a good time and.
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Chris Beckett: There were supposed to be fireworks and holy cow I remember that I looked at my watch at one point I thought it was maybe like 930 or something, and it was, I think it was 1230 at night.
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Chris Beckett: it’s like 12:30am and I was like oh this feels this feels very strange, you know, and it was just getting dark.
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Shane Ludtke: You know yeah yeah.
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OK.
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Chris Beckett: we’ll we’ll move it will move ahead, though June 24 full moon oh wait another super moon for you shane.
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Shane Ludtke: there’s a lot of super moons in 2021, it seems, at least, right now, it seems like every full moon is a super moon.
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Chris Beckett: Well, you know i’m wondering if the definition of a super moon has maybe creeped up a little bit somewhere along the line.
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Chris Beckett: So these super moon phenomenon are relatively new when we were first getting into astronomy years ago nobody ever talked but a Superman you had you had a full moon and you had a new moon and the quarter moons and all that kind of stuff.
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Chris Beckett: And then, and then I knew growing up that we had pre jewel moons you know when when the moon’s or or at their closest points.
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Chris Beckett: Because, where I grew up on the ocean this this affects the tides and we can get flooding, where i’m from you know the water can come over our docket can come over our road, so you know you’re watching for those they have a very significant meaning.
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Chris Beckett: But now I find that the business of the super moon and the closeness of the moon when it’s full.
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Chris Beckett: it’s just simply a matter of is it is it closer than kind of its like median point and if it’s a little bit close like a mile close in the medium point.
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Chris Beckett: I think they’re now calling it like a Superman so there’s there’s no real context to it at all, and I think it’s only around 10% larger and I think I did run the experiment, to see if, if I could see and so.
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Chris Beckett: i’m somebody that that with the with a friend of mine, we actually did a study of the moon, and to see unaided I.
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Chris Beckett: things on the moon, like the like the the oceans on the moon, which are just lava planes and some of the larger craters and this sort of thing and we also try to determine if we could see.
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Chris Beckett: The difference between a pre jewel moon that was that was full and and just just sort of a regular moon or or moon at apogee and it turned out that.
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Chris Beckett: I kind of thought, maybe I could see it, I think, maybe I can see it as somebody who who observed hundreds of.
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Chris Beckett: Of moons and full moons with the unaided I and sketch them so girl so sketching them and taking detailed notes of what we are witnessing and then creating a bit of a grid compare them on on our on our sketch pads.
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Chris Beckett: My friend and I Clark, we thought, maybe we could see it, but we were unsure we were uncertain that we could see a super moon.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah yeah exactly it’s a you know it just really means that the moon’s a little bit bigger but it’s not, at least for me it’s not an astronomical event that really gets me excited or you know it’s nothing that I put on my list of things to observe in the month.
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Chris Beckett: yeah what we could see, though, is that is that rocking motion what’s that what’s that called when you can kind of see.
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Chris Beckett: sort of.
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Chris Beckett: The the motion of the moon going back and forth, because it kind of tends to wobble a little bit in the sky so sometimes you can sort of.
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Chris Beckett: What happens is that as as our orbits kind of go around we kind of play a little bit of ketchup or a bit of someone’s will will lag a bit one of the other, the moodle kind of scooter head will kind of scoot behind a little bit.
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Chris Beckett: So over the course of a month, you can actually see about 59% of the surface or close to 60% of the surface, something like that.
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Chris Beckett: And we noticed that you that we could definitely see that because different features, will it will appear to kind of come in to view or to kind of scoot out of view one is mere orange how.
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Chris Beckett: You know, but but as far as the super moon goes from a regular moon to a super moon atmospheric conditions definitely are much more noticeable.
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Chris Beckett: Then, whether or not the moon is is is is some percent larger not.
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Shane Ludtke: For sure for sure yeah and then the the wobble that Chris was just referring to is known as vibration.
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Shane Ludtke: vibration lunar libration.
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Chris Beckett: yeah I always think of libation which is.
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Chris Beckett: Something something I do when the moon is full because we.
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Chris Beckett: can’t go, we can go doing astronomy okay so June 27 Saturn and the moon or his closest four degrees, but a bit further again that this one’s not favorite here in schedule, I think you’re there about six degrees.
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Chris Beckett: apart in the sky, but what this what this allows you to do, no matter where you are is that Saturn and the moon, so if you want to see Saturn in the morning sky.
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Chris Beckett: You can actually identified so maybe you’re somebody that’s never seen a planet for themselves, but you’re able to see the moon, and so on the morning of June 27 so this isn’t the evening of June, one is in the morning, so you’d be getting up early.
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Chris Beckett: The moon and and Saturn are going to pass pretty close together four degrees is usually a boat.
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Chris Beckett: That they’re usually going to be well seen within most binoculars binoculars or at least four degree field of view.
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Chris Beckett: So, with a decent pair of binoculars you’d be able to see the moon and Center Now you can actually see Center with the unaided I I was just looking at it yesterday morning.
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Chris Beckett: And I know where to look I know where it is in the sky, but if you were a newcomer and you weren’t really sure where to look.
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Chris Beckett: For Saturn in the morning sky well on the morning of the 27th Saturn is going to get pointed out by the moon, because it’s going to be the closest brightest star to it being just about half a fist with raid above the moon.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah very cool.
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Shane Ludtke: And I think I have another opportunity with Jupiter like that don’t we.
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Chris Beckett: Yes, the next well let’s see just two days later on the 29th Jupiter and the moon, are going to be the same thing for degrees apart we’re going to have.
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Chris Beckett: The moon just below Jupiter although for us in the sky it’s going to be scooted over little I think.
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Chris Beckett: The first time they’re they’re a little bit further than four degrees apart for us in other areas of world they’re going to get as close as four degrees.
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Chris Beckett: And then on the morning of the 29th the moon, is going to be a little bit to the east of Jupiter by about 10 degrees for us here in sort of North central North America.
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Chris Beckett: But, but for other folks that are that are to to our East they’re going to be able to see them line up again like.
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Chris Beckett: Like probably over in places like like the UK or or places around where I grew up like in the maritime provinces are over in maine as well you’d be able to to see them lined up a little bit better.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah yeah and then we end the month with yet another planetary pairing that will make it easy again to or easier to to observe Mars if you’ve never done it.
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Shane Ludtke: On June the 30th just around sunset Venus and Mars will be seven and a half degrees apart.
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Shane Ludtke: Which is in the constellation of cancer.
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Shane Ludtke: So very close and at that point so Venus will be pretty low in the horizon kind of Northwest and it’ll be the brightest thing next to the moon in the sky.
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Shane Ludtke: And in fact some people, you know report ufo sightings but it’s really just Venus because it sort of almost looks like it pulsates because of the atmosphere distortion but anyway look for those two planets on the 30th.
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Chris Beckett: yeah we did have a ufo study here, I really wish I knew what it was, but I was reading an astronomy book and they didn’t reference these as being ufo is but.
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Chris Beckett: it’s it’s amazing the things that can be seen through a telescope so some early observers were observing when the sky was very bright.
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Chris Beckett: And it turned out that they were seeing these strange objects quite frequently and they were seeing seeds and then on another occasion some servers over in Africa were observing and they saw some strange things in the daytime sky and they were locusts, they were swarms of locusts.
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Chris Beckett: And then, on another on another occasion somebody saw hail, you know just happened to the way that the hill was falling in it was.
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Chris Beckett: At a great distance from a cloud that was very high and so there’s a lot of different things that that you can see in the sky that can kind of play tricks on you and meteors can kind of come in and skim the atmosphere and that sort of thing but yeah no no ufo sightings for us, unfortunately.
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Chris Beckett: To say the least yeah comets though no comments either.
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Shane Ludtke: None bright enough for you know typical amateur telescope and even if you had large telescopes they’re probably not going to show any detail but it looks like nothing brighter than 11th magnitude, which is pretty dim.
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Chris Beckett: yeah so an 11th many to comment would be difficult to see you think about 11th magnitude star doesn’t start to get easy to see until you get about two but a good three inch telescope or so, and so this is going to be quite a bit more difficult to see than that so.
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Chris Beckett: Anyway, we’re not going to get into such thing things, but what about some clouds this machine cloud cloud watching and astronomy.
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Chris Beckett: hey yeah.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah yeah so June is probably the best month of the year to look for noctilucent clouds now typically you do need to be a little bit more north.
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Shane Ludtke: So, like where we are at 50 degrees is an ideal latitude for for seeing these things now what this is is it’s a cloud that you see after the sunsets now that’s not uncommon you know, sometimes after the sunsets you’ll see black silhouettes of clouds in the sky.
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Chris Beckett: yeah see we saw lots of clouds growing up yeah.
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Shane Ludtke: Now what is interesting about the noctilucent and why you can only see them in June, so we talked about the perpetual twilight that happens here.
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Shane Ludtke: The perpetual twilight happens because, when the sun sets it is really just below the horizon, as the Earth is rotating and that you know keeps the sky sort of illuminated to certain degree.
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Shane Ludtke: Now what it also allows to happen is the sun, even though we can’t see it because it’s just below the horizon.
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Shane Ludtke: Some of its light can still reach very high altitude clouds and what can happen is this phenomena of noctilucent clouds is.
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Shane Ludtke: you’ll see these clouds and they look like daytime clouds like they’re white they’re lit up there bright, but the thing is it’s not daytime you know the sun has set in fact the best time to see these typically is around 90 minutes after sunset.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah and they’re the coolest thing like they are really neat to see, and you know I if you’re out this month after sunset look to the north, because that’s where you’ll see them in the northern sky usually or Northwest and.
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Shane Ludtke: If you see white illuminated clouds and the sun has set you’ve recorded a noctilucent observation.
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Chris Beckett: And they’re they’re a very particular kind of went almost like a blue white and they’re they’re sort of almost like neon.
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Shane Ludtke: White in a way, I suppose, as.
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Chris Beckett: Well, and so so where i’m from which is only about seven or eight degrees further so with from where we live I don’t think I ever saw we had lots of clouds I mean so many clouds that there could have been noctilucent clouds or two, but we had lots of clouds.
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Chris Beckett: We weren’t seeing you know to loosen clouds but, but I think just by being a little bit further north and by having we have really good horizons here.
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Chris Beckett: You can really see them usually we get a couple good sightings of them every year, even from from the city i’ve seen them a few times.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah yeah i’ve seen them multiple times from the city and they often I you know I don’t know if there’s any science behind this, this is just you know what i’ve observed, is that it happens in in during the night when like there’s no clouds in the sky at all.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah it’s a beautifully clear evening and then these things appear almost like ghosts and the young sky, all of a sudden you’ll start to see it in fact sometimes I think i’m seeing aurora like the northern lights are starting to form.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah, then I watch and they don’t really.
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Shane Ludtke: Change shape or your revolve like the aurora does, and then you know it gets a little darker in these things become a little brighter as a result of the contrast, and then you realize you’re looking at noctilucent clouds.
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Chris Beckett: yeah and correct me if i’m wrong sake, so you put this note in but i’m glad you did I always forget to mention them but, but I am always looking for them at this time of year.
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Chris Beckett: But aren’t the noctilucent clouds simply.
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Chris Beckett: The remnants of micro meteors that have entered or sadness you’re burned up very high in the atmosphere like around 70 or 80,000 feet, they get code and a little bit of the the ice and moisture that’s up there and then because of that it has sort of this.
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Chris Beckett: This sort of unique reflectivity versus the the sort of clouds that form lower down in our atmosphere.
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Shane Ludtke: Well there’s there’s a few theories about what the causes are what they are, but I don’t believe anything’s been proven as fact yet.
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Shane Ludtke: there’s a there’s another theory out there that it’s called like I don’t know I guess exhaust or leftover I don’t know, maybe pollution from.
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Shane Ludtke: airplanes because the the noctilucent observations I think are also a recent phenomenon like 100 years ago I don’t think there was any.
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Shane Ludtke: noctilucent observations that were recorded at least maybe people were seeing them, but it does seem like a more recent phenomenon, and some people, then you know go to the you know well, what what do we do high in the sky that might cause that so anyway, I think there’s a few different.
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Shane Ludtke: Again theories or hypothesis about how they form what they are the interesting thing is, you know there’s science that needs to happen on these things to gain a better understanding.
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Chris Beckett: yeah and certainly we’re we’re amateurs amateur astronomers so we’re we’re not scientists in that respect we I do work in science, but not in not in that field.
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Chris Beckett: And let’s see what’s interesting about that comment, though, is is is this and that’s that and not not to and i’m certainly not looking to reduce.
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Chris Beckett: Humans impact on the environment of this planet, which has been unfortunate many circumstances and continues to to weigh heavy into the future.
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Chris Beckett: But last year during the pandemic really stages, when there was almost a complete.
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Chris Beckett: stoppage of air travel in in our region and in all regions of the world is that you and I meet circle noctilucent cloud observations.
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Chris Beckett: So it’s kind of I do take note of that, I noticed that we are getting more aircraft now quite a bit more and we’ve had a lot of those large kind of contractors that kind of spread out over the whole sky and you know kind of unfortunately ruin.
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Chris Beckett: The observing when it’s very still up there, that the contrail just kind of seems to spread them and you get three or four of them.
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Chris Beckett: And then they start crisscrossing and it seems to just take over what seeing what other be otherwise be clear sky, but I haven’t seen any you know this year but anyway that’s sort of my own little anecdotal observation of it, but I look forward to hopefully seeing some later this month.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah for sure.
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Chris Beckett: And let’s see what about the sun how’s the solar active your solar expert or solar amateur observing expert.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah well I do enjoy observing the sun and the sun goes through 11 year roughly 11 years cycles of activity where the activity goes from a maximum to a minimum and when i’m talking about activity it’s more so with the sunspots.
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Shane Ludtke: The sun spots on the sun, are not only really interesting to observe.
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Shane Ludtke: But you know it indicates that the sun is is potentially active and then that can also.
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Shane Ludtke: Send like particles towards earth, which caused the aurora but can also cause other disruptions with satellites and electronics.
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Shane Ludtke: But the point of this note here is, we had just come out of the minimum or we were in the minimum of the last solar cycle.
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Shane Ludtke: It was believed that that cycle had ended, and we were waiting for the new solar cycle, which is solar cycle 25 we’ve been waiting for it to intensify and begin to ramp up to its maximum activity.
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Shane Ludtke: And it looks like that intensification is occurring right now there are a number of sunspot groupings well a couple at least two or three.
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Shane Ludtke: i’ve observed them a little bit earlier in the week i’m going to observe them again today, and the reason i’m mentioning this is, if you again, if you have the right filtering for your optics whether it’s a camera a telescope binoculars if you have the right filtering.
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Shane Ludtke: start looking at the sun, because you’re going to see more detail and there, there is a lot of detail to observe within sunspots and within the groupings of sunspots and it can it can make for.
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Shane Ludtke: Just a you know another way to enjoy the sky I think astronomy is often thought as a nighttime hobby.
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Shane Ludtke: But you know we the closest star to us as our son and there’s an awful lot of observing observing that you can do during the daytime and it’s looking like it’ll just get more and more interesting.
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Chris Beckett: Well, I feel like that was a very beautiful and eloquent.
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Chris Beckett: monologue on on the sunshine, so I think, maybe we should stop there, no, I think that was really nice I really I really enjoyed hearing that night, I think, by me talking any further it’s just going to diminish the impact of your statement.
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Shane Ludtke: Okay let’s let’s call it a day.
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Chris Beckett: All right, well thanks for listening everybody and we’ll talk to you soon.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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