A Penumbral Eclipse
A full moon on Thursday is really the second half of a solar eclipse that happened two weeks ago. Did you know it’s possible for there to be three eclipse seasons per year meaning a chance for six possible eclipses? Find out more in this week’s SkyTalk.
A full moon on Thursday is really the second half of a solar eclipse that happened two weeks ago. Did you know it’s possible for there to be three eclipse seasons per year meaning a chance for six possible eclipses? Even though the penumbral eclipse this week has no color there is a cornucopia of bright objects in the night sky to see this week, including a star called Vega, part of the constellation Lyra. Just look up to the night sky around 9:30 pm and look directly overhead and you’ll see the second brightest star in the northern hemisphere. Next door is the constellation Hercules, you’ll need binoculars and a dark sky to see this constellation, which is 25,000 light years away and don’t miss the Andromeda galaxy, best seen very late at night in the summer with binoculars.
If your a budding amateur astronomer check out the Galaxy Zoo where you can go online to identify galactic structure and have the opportunity to begin classifying galaxies.
Listen:
[audio: st20090803.mp3]
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