Skywatch for the week of May 5, 2025
By Jon U. Bell
May 2, 2025 at 3:50 PM EDT
Skywatch Monday 5-5-2025.mp3
Mon May 5, 2025 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.
Skywatch Tuesday 5-6-2025.mp3
Tue May 6, 2025 DEEP SPACE WORKSHOP
Often after a planetarium show, folks will ask me if they could sit in on one of astronomy classes I teach here at Indian River State College. They tell me they don’t need the credit as they’re not looking to get a college degree, and they don’t want to take a class that goes on for several months, and they don’t want to take a lot of tests. So this year we came up with informal astronomy workshops on the first Wednesday of each month. Tomorrow night is the next workshop in our series and this one will be about deep space – all those far-out things like stars, black holes, nebulas and galaxies. The class will be at the Hallstrom Planetarium from 7:30 to 9:30 pm, and you can get tickets for this workshop by calling 772 462-4750.
Skywatch Wednesday 5-7--2025.mp3
Wed May 7, 2025 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.”
Skywatch Thursday 5-8-2025.mp3
Thu May 8, 2025 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!
Skywatch Friday 5-9-2025.mp3
Fri May 9, 2025 PLANETARIUM SHOW: COSMIC ZOOM
A planetarium director friend of mine once told me that he had a formula for making a successful sky show. He said, you have to show the rings of Saturn, you have to plunge everybody into a black hole, and you have to spin the stars really fast. Well, tonight’s show at the Hallstrom Planetarium has all those things. “Cosmic Zoom” shows you stars and constellations; we take a tour of the solar system, including Saturn; and we have a very cool black hole effect. Oh, and we also spin the stars. “Cosmic Zoom” is playing tonight and tomorrow afternoon - call 462-4750 to get tickets and more show information. And tonight, at no additional charge, the Treasure Coast Astronomical Society will be on hand to show you the moon and the planets through their telescopes, weather permitting.
Mon May 5, 2025 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.
Skywatch Tuesday 5-6-2025.mp3
Tue May 6, 2025 DEEP SPACE WORKSHOP
Often after a planetarium show, folks will ask me if they could sit in on one of astronomy classes I teach here at Indian River State College. They tell me they don’t need the credit as they’re not looking to get a college degree, and they don’t want to take a class that goes on for several months, and they don’t want to take a lot of tests. So this year we came up with informal astronomy workshops on the first Wednesday of each month. Tomorrow night is the next workshop in our series and this one will be about deep space – all those far-out things like stars, black holes, nebulas and galaxies. The class will be at the Hallstrom Planetarium from 7:30 to 9:30 pm, and you can get tickets for this workshop by calling 772 462-4750.
Skywatch Wednesday 5-7--2025.mp3
Wed May 7, 2025 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.”
Skywatch Thursday 5-8-2025.mp3
Thu May 8, 2025 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!
Skywatch Friday 5-9-2025.mp3
Fri May 9, 2025 PLANETARIUM SHOW: COSMIC ZOOM
A planetarium director friend of mine once told me that he had a formula for making a successful sky show. He said, you have to show the rings of Saturn, you have to plunge everybody into a black hole, and you have to spin the stars really fast. Well, tonight’s show at the Hallstrom Planetarium has all those things. “Cosmic Zoom” shows you stars and constellations; we take a tour of the solar system, including Saturn; and we have a very cool black hole effect. Oh, and we also spin the stars. “Cosmic Zoom” is playing tonight and tomorrow afternoon - call 462-4750 to get tickets and more show information. And tonight, at no additional charge, the Treasure Coast Astronomical Society will be on hand to show you the moon and the planets through their telescopes, weather permitting.