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!
Mini Moon – You might be thinking of that scene
from Austin Powers, but this has nothing to do with a
small derrière. There will be a special full Moon this
month – a Mini Moon. The Moon does not travel in an
exact circle around the Earth. The Moon follows an
elliptical path. If the Earth and Moon were the only
objects in the solar system, the Moonʼs path would
be circular since the Earthʼs gravitation would be the
only force acting on the Moon. However, the Sun and
the remaining planets place an additional gravitational
effect on the Moon, which causes the Moonʼs orbit to
stretch into an oval. On June 9 th the Moon will reach
the farthest point in its orbit (the apogee). The Moon
will be about 251 thousand miles away from the Earth.
At its closest point (the perigee), the Moon is 225
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thousand miles away, or 10% closer to the Earth as
compared to the farthest point. At its farthest point, the
Moon will appear 13% smaller. For added affect, you
can watch the Moon shrink in size in mere minutes.
When the Moon rises above the horizon, it will look
huge. As it gets higher in the sky, it will shrink. An
optical illusion occurs with objects viewed from a
distance across terrain. The objects appear larger in
our minds. So, happy Moon gazing.
Get Out Your Umbrella – Cosmic Rays are raining
down on us. Cosmic Rays are energetic particles that
pour down on the Earth from space. Perhaps Cosmic
Rain would be a better name, since the particles are
somewhat random in their direction and location. They
are not laser rays like comic book ray guns. Cosmic
Rays are primarily (90%) composed of lose protons that
have traveled millions of miles through space enroute
to Earth. Of the remaining 10%, 9% are helium atoms
and 1% are electrons. When the sun is more active,
the solar wind pushes many of the Cosmic Rays away
from Earth. When the sun is less active, as it is now,
more Cosmic Rays shower down on us. So why do we
care? If you use a computer, a stray cosmic particle
can hit your memory card or your CPU and corrupt a
memory location or a CPU calculation. As electronics
become smaller and smaller, there is a greater chance
that for a cosmic proton to cause havoc. Intel is even
considering Cosmic Ray detectors that would reissue
a command if a Cosmic Ray is detected. So the next
time my wife yells at me for breaking the computer,
Iʼm blaming Cosmic Rays!
—Brian Biggs
Amateur Astronomer
Clo in se 2 d 0 Ro Y d ears
the eo W
Ju L ne o 2 c 7 a - Sam e e ek
Ju n ly ! 4
tio
6
June 2017
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