<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Okay, if April showers bring May flowers, what do April snow showers bring?\u00a0 Enough – let spring begin in earnest!!\u00a0 A quick note of \u2018thanks\u2019 to those intrepid photographers who have been posting aurora photos on the \u2018You Know You Are From Ontonagon\u2019 Facebook page.\u00a0 Though I am not a Facebook subscriber, I do enjoy checking out the wonderful photos.\u00a0 Now, let us get to the business at hand for May, astronomically speaking.\u00a0 Oh yes, do not forget to circle May 3 on your calendar –<\/span> International Astronomy Day<\/b> will be observed that Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0May 5 finds us starting the month with the <\/span>Eta Aquarids meteor shower.\u00a0 <\/b>Though the Moon will be in its waxing gibbous phase, it should only have a slight effect on our meteor viewing (although the <\/span>Abrams Sky Calendar<\/span><\/i> warns us to \u2018not expect to see many\u2019).\u00a0 The peak will be reached on May 5 but elevated numbers of meteors are typical a day or two ahead of and after the peak.\u00a0 Some may be visible just before dawn with up to 50 meteors per hour predicted for this shower.\u00a0 The meteors will seem to radiate from the star Eta Aquarid in the constellation of <\/span>Aquarius, the Water Bearer <\/b>in the east, hence the name..<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Look for the <\/span>First Quarter Moon<\/b> on May 4, just as the Aquariads are ramping up.\u00a0 The <\/span>Full Moon <\/b>will take place on May 12, the <\/span>Last Quarter Moon<\/b> on May 20 and the <\/span>New Moon<\/b> will begin the next Lunar cycle on May 27.\u00a0 The <\/span>Abrams Sky Calendar<\/span><\/i> also reminds us that, \u201cThin crescent Moons are wonderful when viewed with binoculars.\u00a0 Try for the old Moon just before Sunrise in the east on May 26 and an easier, naked-eye Moon with Earthshine at dusk on May 27.\u00a0 Spotting opposing crescent Moons on consecutive days is a very rare accomplishment.\u201d\u00a0 With that, you have been given your Astronomical challenge for May.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0On the planetary front, bright <\/span>Venus<\/b> (mag -4.7) rises in the east near the start of twilight.\u00a0 As sunrise approaches, binoculars will reveal the planet to be in a crescent phase with 29 percent lit\u00a0 (and a span of 36 \u201c across on May 1).\u00a0 By the end of the month, the phase will be more challenging at a span of 24\u201d across (while the crescent will have increased to 49 percent).\u00a0 On May 6, <\/span>Saturn<\/b> will rise with Venus.\u00a0 Look for it shining at magnitude +1.2 located 5.1 degrees to the right of the brighter planet.\u00a0 May 6 also marks the autumnal equinox for Saturn which happens every 29.4 years when the <\/span>Rings<\/b> are seen \u2018on edge\u2019 as the Sun\u2019s vertical ray moves to the southern hemisphere.\u00a0 The planet has appeared ringless in this short period prior to May 6 with the shaded side of the rings pointing toward us.\u00a0 That side will slowly begin to be visible as the Sun illuminates them from below and the lit rings will be seen 3.1 degrees from edge on by May 31.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Jupiter<\/b> remains the bright spot for evening viewing.\u00a0 Jupiter starts the evening in the western sky about and hour before sunset and it will set 3-4 minutes earlier during the month.\u00a0 Watch it slowly pass between the horns of <\/span>Taurus, the Bull.<\/b>\u00a0 Look for <\/span>Mars<\/b> just below the Moon on May 3.\u00a0 Asteroid <\/span>Vesta<\/b> (discovered in 1807) reaches opposition on May 1 and can be seen with binoculars left of the bright star <\/span>Spica <\/b>in <\/span>Virgo, the Virgin <\/b>(near the star Mu Virgo).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Our historical astronomical event for this month actually took place on April 21, 1972 when Apollo 16 astronauts John Young and Charlie Duke planted the first (and so far only) telescope on the Moon.\u00a0 With the scientific community currently bucking the insane notion of removing examples of inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility from our nation\u2019s history, it should be noted that this telescope was the brainchild of an African-American astronomer named George Carruthers (1939-2020).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0After earning his PhD in aeronautical and astronautical engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Dr. Carruthers accepted a postdoctoral position at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory where he would spend the rest of his career.\u00a0 His interest in astronomy and space exploration led him to design and build telescopes with a focus on ultraviolet imaging and spectroscopy.\u00a0 After the Apollo 11 mission, Carruthers proposed what would become the <\/span>Far Ultraviolet Camera\/Spectrograph<\/b> telescope deployed on the Apollo 16 mission.\u00a0 It was a hybrid analog-digital device that produced electrons but recorded the data on film that the astronauts would return to Earth for processing.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In a 1999 interview, Carruthers described the outcome of this investigation:\u00a0 \u201cThe most immediately obvious and spectacular results were really for the Earth Observations, because this was the first time the Earth had been photographed from a distance in ultraviolet light.\u00a0 You could see the full extent of the hydrogen atmosphere (geocoronal), the polar auroras, and what we call the tropical airglow belt.\u00a0 All\u00a0 of these things were revealed for the first time\u2026We also obtained UV images of stars [and] the Large Magellanic Cloud.\u201d\u00a0 One can only scratch their head in wonder at how scrubbing events like this from our history makes any sense at all.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Compiled by Ken Raisanen of WOAS-FM 91.5 – information provided by <\/span>Abrams Planetarium Sky Calendar<\/span><\/i>, Michigan State University.\u00a0 More information and subscription information can be found on their website at <\/span>http:\/\/abramsplanetarium.org\/<\/span><\/a>skycalendar\/<\/span>.\u00a0 Yearly subscriptions cost $12 and can be started anytime. Comments and questions can be emailed to kraisanen@oasd.k12.mi.us<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video – Aquariads you say?\u00a0 How about\u00a0Aquarius – Let the Sun Shine In?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Okay, if April showers bring May flowers, what do April snow showers bring?\u00a0 Enough – let spring begin in earnest!!\u00a0 A quick note of \u2018thanks\u2019 to those intrepid photographers who have been posting aurora photos on the \u2018You Know You Are From Ontonagon\u2019 Facebook page.\u00a0 Though I am not a Facebook subscriber, I do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3527"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3528,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3527\/revisions\/3528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}