PCC News Monthly April 2017 | Page 6

The Sky This Month Welcome to our night-time sky. Please enjoy this monthʼs tidbits of knowledge. We are lucky to live in a dark-sky area where the heavens can shine through. I hope you enjoy the sky and perhaps learn a thing or two. Happy star gazing! Geo-synchronicity Isnʼt a Police Song – A lot of objects orbit the earth, including the Moon, the space station, and hundreds of satellites. A special subset of satellites maintains a geosynchronous orbit. A geosynchronous orbit occurs when the satellite makes one complete rotation in the same time that the Earth makes one complete rotation. At the end of the rotation, the satellite is above the same point on Earth as when the rot