Looking Forward to Summer Already?

Have you had your fill of long dark nights, yet? Well, Thursday marks the earliest sunset, but don’t despair. After the winter solstice we will begin to gain some minutes of daylight. A total lunar eclipse might lift your spirits, but this Saturday, amateur astronomers in the Delaware Valley probably won’t be able to see it, because we are too far east. Lucky sky watchers on the west coast will see almost all of it, but Hawaii will get to see it from start to finish. Also, the new budget for NASA is less than expected. If we’re scaling back our space program who is picking up the slack? China is going full blast and has plans to build a space station in orbit and wants to get to a point where they can send astronauts there. All that and more on this week’s Sky Talk.[audio: st20111205.mp3]