PLANET AND SPACE STATION GAZING
In and around Cranbrook
PLANETS:
VENUS: one of our neighbours in space is a beautiful sight, very bright in the evening sky in the west after sunset. It is quite visible at 9.30pm even though it is still quite light. It is sometimes called the evening star, but it is a planet not a star
JUPITER: seen BRIGHT to the South East and higher than Venus: nicely visible even at 9.30pm. Jupiter is the giant planet of our Solar System
HOW TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A STAR AND A PLANET.....
Stars Twinkle and planets dont! Its true....stars are tiny point sources of light to us and the light rays from them get bent around in the atmosphere (because of the different temperatures and densities in the air) and so they twinkle.
Planets are larger objects in the sky for us, so this effect makes hardly any difference to their brightness...they don't twinkle.
GOOD LINK
to check the night sky for when my page is out of date and I have forgotten to renew it! BBC CLICK HERE
and another excellent one is this: JODRELL BANK OBSERVATORY
DO YOU KNOW THE NAME OF OUR NEAREST STAR????????
(see the bottom of this page for the answer)
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
The ISS can be seen easily with the naked eye if you know when/where to look. It appears like an brightish star which slowly moves across the sky and can take
typically 1,2 or 3 minutes before it disappears. (no flashing lights so don't confuse it with an aeroplane).
The ISS usually disappears before it goes down over the horizon, this is because it passes into the Earth's shadow. (it is only about 400 km above the Earth's surface)
The ISS has an orbit such that for a period of a couple of weeks or so it is only visible in the early morning before sun-up. Then later it only appears in the evening.
To see the CURRENT SIGHTING TIMES FROM CRANBROOK CLICK HERE
Our nearest star is called "The Sun" - all stars are like the Sun but much further away.
The Sun is a boringly average star - there are millions bigger and hotter than the Sun.
A star is a massive Hydrogen bomb.
The outward force of the explosion is balanced by the inward force of gravity.
The Sun is pretty stable and is about half way through its lifetime with only about 1000 million years left!
IF YOU SEE A UFO
UFOTREK: UFO sightings recorded information line. Tel 0870 046 2270 (24 hours). Report a sighting on our automated answering service, after this weeks message. (Calls charged at normal national BT rate).
Contact us at geoffpiper@onetel.com