Aurora seen by EarthSky Facebook friend Colin Chatfield in Saskatchewan, Canada on May 19, 2012.
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Some Inuit believed that the spirits of their ancestors could be seen dancing in the flickering of the aurora borealis, or northern lights. In Norse mythology the aurora was a fire bridge to the sky built by the gods. But science tells us that the aurora happens because of the sun.
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Tonight's moon (March 30, 2012) from Muscat, Oman by EarthSky Facebook friend Priya Kumar. Beautiful Priya!
Tonight’s moon …. a first quarter moon rises at noon and is high overhead at sunset. It sets around midnight.
A first quarter moon shows half of its lighted hemisphere – half of its day side – to Earth. But we officially call this moon a quarter and not a half because it is one quarter of the way around in its orbit of Earth, as measured from one new moon to the next. On the night of first quarter moon, we see half the moon’s day side, or a true quarter of the moon. Another lighted quarter of the moon shines just as brightly in the direction opposite Earth!
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After sunset on May 28, 2012, if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, look high in the south to southwest sky for the first quarter moon and the red planet Mars. Observers in the Southern Hemisphere will find this same pair – the moon and Mars – but you will want to look in the northern sky at nightfall. Throughout the evening, the moon and Mars will move westward and downward in our sky, before setting in the west after midnight.
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Tropical Storm Beryl hovers near U.S. Southeast coastline on Sunday, May 27, 2012. Image Credit: NASA/GSFC MODIS Rapid Response
As of Sunday evening – May 27, 2012 – Tropical Storm Beryl is intensifying, with winds just below hurricane status. This storm could cause greater impacts than previously expected in the U.S. Southeast, for example, in Georgia and Florida. The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Sunday evening that Beryl was expected to make landfall late Sunday or early Monday.
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Daytime moon of May 27, 2012, seen from Ireland. Photo by Damian O'Sullivan. Thank you, Damian! See more moon photos on EarthSky’s Facebook page.
We get many comments from those who see the moon in the daytime. The comments tend to have an air of disbelief about them, typically going something like this:
I saw the moon in a blue sky. Why? How can this happen? I thought the moon was visible only at night!
In fact, the idea that the moon is up only at night is a misconception. It’s only the full moon that that rises in the east as the sun is setting in the west and reigns in the sky all night long. In other words, the moon is up all night long only one night each month. Otherwise, the moon rises and sets on its own schedule.
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Henry Rollins' new show on National Geographic Wild premieres this week. It explores how different cultures around the world interact with animals. Photo by Heidi May
Host: Jorge Salazar
Lead Producer: Mike Brennan
This week’s featured stories:
Exploring an Animal Underworld with Henry Rollins Jorge Salazar speaks with Henry Rollins about his new program on National Geographic Wild, premiering this week, in which he explores how different cultures around the world interact with animals.
Global Night Sky Jorge Salazar and Deborah Byrd talk about how to see Mars and Venus in early evening.
Thanks for listening in to your 22 minutes of science and music!
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Beginning around May 27, 2012, the moon in our sky sweeps below the constellation Leo the Lion for several nights. This is the constellation in which you’ll also find the planet Mars. The moon is still waxing larger each evening. Full moon will come on June 4, and there will be a partial lunar eclipse visible throughout the Americas and Asia. Tonight’s moon is a fat waxing crescent moon passing close to Regulus, Leo’s brightest star. The planet Mars is the reddish “star” nearby. By this time tomorrow – on Monday, May 28 – a fuller moon will have moved eastward, or in the direction of Mars.
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No, it's not the moon. This amazing photo of a crescent Venus, deep in the western twilight, was taken on May 18, 2012 by our friend Duke Marsh from the Louisville Astronomical Society's Urban Astronomy Center. He says the exposure was short, but camera was zoomed in to about a 500mm focal length, giving the view that you'd see looking through 10X binoculars.
May 2012 is almost over. Venus is sinking into the sunset, preparing to be lost in the sun’s glare, but you can still see it in late May if you look not long after the sun goes down. Through a telescope or strong binoculars, Venus can be seen in a thin crescent phase. As soon as darkness falls, also watch for Mars and Saturn to light up the evening sky. Mars will be near the moon on May 28 and 29. Saturn will be near the moon on May 30 and 31.
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Indirect view 2004 Venus transit by EarthSky Facebook friend Jean Marie Delaporte, who projected the image onto a camping car.
You must find a way to protect your eyes if you plan to watch the transit of Venus on June 5-6, 2012. Amateur astronomer with a telescopes will be using safe solar filters on the sky end of their ‘scopes to watch the transit. If you don’t have this setup, you still have options, but not as many as for a solar eclipse. Remember, the sun is small in the sky, and Venus is much much smaller. So solar eclipse glasses and welder’s glass might not work. We recommend that – unless you have a telescope with a special solar filter – you’ll probably want to use one of these options:
Hurricane Bud was expected to make a quick landfall in western Mexico this weekend, but now it is dissipating.
UPDATE MAY 26, 2012. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said early Saturday that Hurricane Bud was seen to weaken early Saturday before making landfall in Mexico. It has become increasingly disorganized in the Pacific, although it may still drop another inch or two of rain along Mexico’s southwest coast. Bud is expected to dissipate within the next day or so.
Bud has now degenerated to a remnant low, according to the National Hurricane Center. Maximum sustained winds were near 30 mph (48 kph) as the storm hovered about 15 miles (24 kilometers) off the coast of Cabo Corrientes, Mexico.
EarthSky weather blogger Matt Daniel said that, in weakening suddenly and unexpectedly in this way, Hurricane Bud reminded him of 2011′s Tropical Storm Don …
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Stéphane Udry is an astronomer at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, and is involved in the search for exoplanets.. He and his team, in 2007, discovered a possibly terrestrial planet in the habitable zone of the red dwarf star Gliese 581, approximately 20 light years away in the constellation Libra. He also led the…read more »
Stéphane Udry: Evidence of billions of rocky, habitable planets in our galaxy
Chris Field is the founding director of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology, Professor of Biology and Environmental Earth System Science at Stanford University, and Faculty Director of Stanford’s Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve. Field’s research emphasizes impacts of climate change, from the molecular to the global scale. He has, for two decades, led major…read more »
In 2004 David Stuart was appointed as the Linda and David Schele Professor of Mesoamerican Art and Writing. His interests in the traditional cultures of Mesoamerica are wide-ranging, but his primary research focuses is the archaeology and epigraphy of ancient Maya civilization. His early work on the decipherment of Maya hieroglyphs led to a MacArthur…read more »
David Stuart on the Mayan calendar and 2012 doomsday predictions
Kristin O’Brien is an Associate Professor of Biology University of Alaska Institute of Arctic Biology. She is interested in the unique biochemical and physiological characteristics that have evolved in fishes living in the chronically cold environment of Antarctica’s Southern Ocean. One of the most striking characteristics among the Antarctic fishes of the family Channichthyidae, known…read more »
Kristin O’Brien: Antarctic icefishes have translucent bodies and blood
Sukanya Chakarbarti is faculty member in the physics department at Florida Atlantic University. She researches the dynamical evolution of galaxies, with the goal of developing astrophysical probes of fundamental physics. Chakrabarti works on understanding galaxy evolution by performing hydrodynamical and magnetohydrodynamical simulations of galaxies combined with radiative transfer calculations. Dr. Chakrabarti has co-authored over 30…read more »
Sukanya Chakrabarti maps dark matter from ripples of passing satellites
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