Hello all!
Welcome back to school for the new school year! I am so excited to see you all again, and meet those of you who I have never taught before. We are going to have a GREAT year!
Good News! We are still going to have the Astronomy Club! We are going to try to get that star party in...hopefully the weather will be on our side this year!
Ok, let's see what is going on in science news!
Tonight, the moon and Venus will be in conjunction! They will be less than 10 degrees apart from each other! Go outside right after the sun goes down and check out this beautiful sight! It is not just Venus that you will be able to see either, Mars will also be visible with the unaided eye. You can use optical aids to see Saturn, too!
*the above info and photos were taken from SpaceWeather (www.spaceweather.com)ISS Flybys
The International Space Station (ISS) will be making a series of flybys in our area! If you can, go out and wave to the astronauts! Here are the times/locations for our area:
Saturday, September 11, 2010: 9:19:32pm-9:21:49pm WNW max. elevation--> 30 degrees magnitude --> -2.2
Sunday, September 12, 2010: 8:11:01pm-8:13:28pm WNW max. elevation --> 63 degrees magnitude --> -3.7
Monday, September 13, 2010: 8:38:05pm-8:40:16pm WNW max. elevation --> 31 degrees magnitude --> -2.3
Tuesday, September 14, 2010: 7:29:24pm- 7:31:52pm WNW max. elevation --> 75 degrees magnitude --> -3.9
Wednesday, September 15, 2010: 7:56:29pm-7:58:33pm WNW max. elevation -->26 degrees magnitude --> -2.0
*remember the lower the magnitude, the brighter the object! So, the ISS will appear the brightest on Tuesday, with a magnitude of -3.9!
One item to take into consideration, is that the sun will be setting around 7:15/7:20pm. This might make it difficult to see on Tuesday. You should still go out and look! The ISS will look like a star that is moving across the sky (it kind of looks like an airplane, except it has no flashing lights).
If you are not in the school area, go online to check the times for your local area (www.spaceweather.com/flybys)
*the above info about the ISS flybys has been taken from SpaceWeather's flyby section (www.spaceweather.com/flybys)
Shuttle Launch
The next Space Shuttle launch is scheduled for November 1 at 4:40pm. STS-133, Space Shuttle Discovery will launch from Cape Canaveral, FL (Launch Pad 39A) on a mission to the ISS. We will keep an eye on this, as the launch date gets a little closer.
*for more info on NASA's launches, visit www.NASA.gov
We will check back on some of these items next week!
For now, keep an eye to the sky!
Ms. T
