What Does Leap Day Have to Do with Astronomy?

For all those procrastinators out there we’ve earned an extra day this year, due to the non exact orbit of Earth around the sun. We think of the Earth’s orbit as circular, but it’s actually elliptical, creating an uneven year length with a bunch of quarter days hanging out there. Ancient civilizations, like the Romans, started realizing that their calendars were falling out of sync. Pope Gregory finally created a calendar that allowed for this uneven year, by adding a leap year. Also, don’t miss what’s in the night sky this week including a thin crescent moon. All this and more on this week’s Sky Talk.[audio: st20120227.mp3]