Mon May 6, 2024 ALAN SHEPARD, FIRST ASTRONAUT
On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American to be called a real astronaut, riding on board the Mercury space capsule Freedom 7 to an altitude of about a hundred miles. It was a suborbital flight, and the rocket’s trajectory brought him down again to splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean near the Bahamas. The first minute of flight was fairly smooth, until the rocket made the transition to supersonic speed - as Shepard put it, "the ride did get a little rough." When things settled down, and the capsule separated from the Redstone rocket, Alan Shepard had a beautiful view of Florida - south to the Keys, north toward the Carolinas, west to Lake Okeechobee, Tampa Bay and Pensacola, and east to Bimini.
Tue May 7, 2024 NEW PLANETARIUM SHOW: BLACK HOLES
The constellation of Orion the Hunter is low in our southwestern sky this evening. To the east of the three stars in Orion’s belt lies the faint constellation Monoceros the Unicorn, and it is here where we find a black hole, called, V616 Monocerotis. It’s about 3,000 light years away, or 18,000 trillion miles. We’ll point it out for you at the Hallstrom Planetarium in our newest program, “Black Holes.” This show is really out of sight, and it’s narrated by John de Lancie, who played the alien character known as “Q” on Star Trek. Who better than Q to discuss such cosmic mysteries? Join us at the Planetarium this weekend. Shows are on Friday night or on Saturday afternoon. For tickets to the black hole, call Indian River State College’s box office at 772) 462-4750.
Wed May 8, 2024 ANNIE JUMP CANNON
On May 9th, 1922, astronomers adopted Annie Jump Cannon’s stellar classification system. Annie Cannon worked at the Harvard Observatory, where she sorted and catalogued stars by their spectra. When you look at the light of a star through a specialized prism, a spectroscope, you can see that there are thin gaps where the colors are missing. The spacing of these gaps can be matched up with those of heated gases in the lab, telling us what elements are present in those stars – kind of a cosmic bar code. Cannon sorted the stars, and after some adjustments, it resulted in a ranking of stars from hot to cool: O, B, A, F, G, K and M, which countless astronomy students have memorized by using this simple phrase – “Oh, Be A Fine Girl (or Guy,) Kiss Me!
Thu May 9, 2024 CECILIA PAYNE GAPOSCHKIN
Cecilia Payne Gaposchkin was born on May 10, 1900. At the age of 25, she decoded the light from stars, revealing their chemical compositions. When a spectroscope, a device that like a prism, splits starlight into a rainbow of colors, we find dark gaps in those colors, places where the outer atmosphere of a star has absorbed those wavelengths of light. These absorption lines are like cosmic fingerprints, telling us what elements are present in a star. Cecelia Payne was able to prove that hydrogen and helium are the most abundant elements, the rest of the periodic table making up only 2 percent of a star’s mass. Cecilia also said, “Your reward will be the widening of the horizon as you climb. And if you achieve that reward you will ask no other.”
Fri May 10, 2024 NEW PLANETARIUM SHOW: BLACK HOLES
Orion the Hunter is low in the southwest sky this evening. To the east of the three stars in Orion’s belt lies the faint constellation Monoceros the Unicorn, and it is here where we find a black hole, called, V616 Monocerotis. It’s about 3,000 light years away, or 18,000 trillion miles. We’ll point it out for you at the Hallstrom Planetarium in our new show, “Black Holes.” It’s narrated by John de Lancie, who played the alien character known as “Q” on Star Trek. Who better than Q to discuss such cosmic mysteries? Join us at the Planetarium this weekend. Shows are on Friday night or on Saturday afternoon. Call Indian River State College’s box office at 772) 462-4750 for tickets. And tonight the Treasure Coast Astronomical Society will be on hand to let you view the moon through a telescope.
