Take a look at the seasonal sky this week and see if you can examine our galaxy the Milky Way, characterized by a stripe of light stretched across the sky. It might be hard, because depending on where you live light pollution can obscure the planets in the night sky. The Milky Way rings the horizon right now. It's a flat disc about 100,000 light years in diameter, but it's very difficult to get a full idea of what the shape is like. We are positioned so far out in the galaxy that if other planets did have life they would have a very difficult time finding us. At the core of our galaxy is a super massive black hole and is the major energy source that drives the development of new stars. Being so far away we don't have to worry too much about the effects of this black hole. Another major highlight of the night sky is Venus, which you can see right now at sunset as it makes its plunge to the sun ending in the upcoming transit of Venus on June 5th. A transit is very much like an eclipse. Venus will pass between the Earth and the sun, but it's so small that it will just be silhouetted against the sun. It's best to try and see it now since this event won't occur again for another 105-121 years. The American Philosophical Society is celebrating this occurrence with all sorts of great activities the weekend before the transit. Let Derrick Pitts guide you through this special event.

There is a solar eclipse coming, but we won’t be so lucky to see it here on the East Coast. It will be visible way out over the Northern Pacific ocean. This is a partial eclipse, which means there is a ring of sunlight around the moon. The sky will not appear dark during this eclipse, but with the proper kind of filtering one could see a remarkable sight. Even though you may not be able to see it in the sky, you can always to go to NASA who has a great eclipse page, so you can see what the eclipse looks like. Something you will be able to see is the “mini” moon. The complete opposite of the super moon you saw two weeks ago, the moon will be at the most distant apogee of the year. And don’t miss what’s in the Spring sky. All this and more on this week’s Sky Talk.

Look up at the Spring sky and you might see the International Space Station that flies over Philadelphia four to seven times every day. There are three astronauts on board at the moment, but that will grow to six this month. The US is counting on Russia to help continue missions into space by providing launch vehicles and capsules to take people up to earth orbit. Although some may be skeptical that they are up to the job, it’s important to note that Russian spacecraft are simpler than ours, but tend to be more reliable. A new rover will be landing on Mars on August 6th and will be part of the next series of rovers looking for evidence of life on Mars. This one could live on for quite a while since this rover will not use solar panels for energy. Also, that super moon you saw on Saturday may not have been as large as you think. All this and more on this week’s Sky Talk.

This month’s full moon occurs this Saturday, May 5th at 11:35 p.m.  It coincides with a minimum perigee just one hour earlier, bringing the moon 3 percent closer to Earth than average perigees. The result? The moon will appear a bit larger and 16 percent brighter than other full moons this year – a super moon.

The elliptical shape of the moon’s orbit allows for both a minimum distance and a maximum distance from Earth. The minimum is called ‘perigee’ (‘peri’ – Latin for close to, ‘gee’ – Earth), the maximum is ‘apogee’ (‘apo’ Latin –‘far from’).  The moon’s orbit also slowly rotates around Earth. This means the dates for perigee and apogee gradually slide along the calendar from month to month.

Although an optical illusion already causes the moon to appear unusually large at moonrise, with a minimum perigee 3% closer than average, the full moon will appear even larger when it rises Saturday at 7:49 p.m EDT.

Is it really ‘super’? Only as far as ocean tides are concerned. With this ‘close’ close approach, the moon will exert 42 times more force on tides than it would at the next apogee two weeks later.

Will the close approach cause any disasterous effects? Nope. No earthquakes, tidal waves, crime sprees, heart attacks, or volcanic eruptions. ‘Supermoon’ actually happens once a year, quite frequently when measured in geologic or even astronomical time. And it seems the earth has managed to survive each time.

Then why do we call it ‘super’? As Madison Avenue has directed us, everything should sound more attractive or interesting when supersized! Well, almost everything….  Great time to get a ‘moon-tan’ or blame your drunken walk home Saturday night on the extra gravitational pull of the moon. Enjoy!

What is the point called when we are half-way between two season markers like the beginning of Spring and the beginning of Summer? A cross-quarter day of course. Cross-quarter days are celebrated in different ways around the world. Keep your eye out for Venus as it comes close to a position of note, although most people may not realize how significant it is. It will be at its greatest declination North for the last several centuries. If your wondering what declination is— it’s like longitude in space. After this Venus’ elevation above the horizon will begin to drop setting earlier and earlier every night. But don’t worry, even though the focus is on Venus, there will still be many planets to see in the night sky. Also, a meteorite, at about, 157,000 pounds or so, broke up in the Earth’s atmosphere depositing fragments on land in California. Scientists predict there will be more fragments available to be found. But be aware that most of the objects that come from space look like regular earth rocks so you really have to know what your looking for to find one of these fragments on land. All this and more on this weeks Sky Talk.

The Chandra X-ray telescope has been incredibly successful in bringing us information from distant galaxies. It has now identified a normal black hole, meaning it was derived from the standard stellar evolution process. This case is unique, because the black hole was identified for the first time in a distant galaxy 12 million Light Years away. Also, North Korea tried and failed to join the club of space nations when its rocket failed to launch.  Is it simply difficult in general to get something launched or does this speak to their failures? All three attempts by North Korea have failed in the past couple of decades, so this may be a result of not having a strong enough government support system with the talent and funding to be successful. And don't miss the many great planets visible in the Spring sky, a highlight being the Lyrid meteor shower.  Although the rate of meteors per hour could be less than impressive, you'll have an opportunity to see the shower over this coming weekend.  All this and more on this week's Sky Talk.

On Sunday the sun will neither be running fast nor slow, since it will have arrived at a point that we come to several times a year where the equation of time is absolutely even. We have this fictitious notion of time called ‘mean solar time’, which works well for watches and clocks, but the truth is the sun actually runs ahead and behind of this mean time. What makes this Sunday, April 15th, so special is that noon will actually fall where it should, meaning when your watch says noon it matches with the suns motion across the sky. Also, does the solar system need a clean up? There is a lot of naturally occurring space junk, also known as asteroids, that run in that belt between Mars and Jupiter, but there is also a lot of stuff orbiting around the sun and sometimes these objects fall into orbits around the Earth as well. What if we have a close encounter with one? There aren’t many large ones we have to worry about. Also, don’t miss brilliant Venus in the night sky this week. All this and more on this week’s Sky Talk.

**This is the season of star parties, so make sure you check out your local astronomy club at the links below. Also the Philadelphia Science Festival running from April 20th through the 29th is not to be missed.

Do you know much about Red Dwarf stars? A Red Dwarf star is the most numerous in the galaxy because they are very low in mass and don’t give off much radiation. These stars have a surface temperature of 4 or 5,000 degrees, but if you can get a planet close enough a warm enough environment can be created. The lower the mass of the star the longer and more stable the star seems to be. These stars are really economical, since they last for a long time. Also, a piece of Apollo 11 has been found. In this case it was the first stage booster rocket, which is not sought after by NASA, but was of interest to someone else. Although NASA’s policy is that anything made for NASA is their property, so technically it’s still theirs. Look for a full moon on Friday, which marks Easter and Passover, holidays that are tied to lunar phases. And don’t miss what’s in the night sky this week including the Pleiades. All this and more on this week’s Sky Talk.

The sky is bright with many planets to be seen in the western sky tonight, March 26th. You’ll see a thin crescent moon, along with brilliant Venus and Jupiter. This is also the perfect time of year to see constellations of the winter sky and summer sky. Also, NASA is hoping it will be able to launch five sounding rockets, which are smaller rockets that don’t have as much thrust and carry a much smaller pay load. They also have a very special substance on board that upon exposure to oxygen, will glow. Since the sounding rockets are launching from Wallops Island, Virginia, which is not that far away from the Delaware Valley, we may be able to see this glowing material blowing around in the atmosphere. All this and more on this weeks Sky Talk.