Learning about planispheres, talking about the news and what is up in the sky tonight and listening to a little music! Happy New Years Everyone!

Okay, I have a joke for you. What is the definition of an optimist? How about an amateur astronomer in the Pacific Northwest!!! We have had almost 2 straight weeks of rain and if not rain clouds! It never fails that when we have time off the clouds come in so I am hoping all of my friends in other parts of the country are having better luck with their night sky!!

In fact, drop us a line and tell us how your New Year's Eve night fare and give us an astronomy related New Years resolution! You can email us at astronomyagogo@gmail.com or leave a note in our show notes at www.astronomy.libsyn.com. We would love to hear from you!

So, I often work with kids, and adults for that matter, and when talking about the planets I use the mnemonic "My very educated mother just served us nine pizzas." To help them learn the planets in order. So here is my question to you, what mnemonics do you use to remember astronomical references? Drop us a line at astronomyagogo@gmail.com

Trivia!

We thought we would add some trivia to the podcast. We have three questions for you to answer and will announce the winners and the correct answers in next week's pod cast.

You can leave an answer in the comment section of our webpage astronomy.libsyn.com in the notes for Show #3 or email us at astronomyagogo@gmail.com

• Question #1 Who was the first woman in space?
• Question #2 Which of the following animals has NOT flown in space? A: Dog, B:Brine Shrimp, C: Jellyfish, and D: Cat
• Question #3 How many planets in our solar system have rings?

Planispheres

Whether you like your astronomy occasionally or you are totally obsessed you should definitely know how to use a planisphere.

We are going to use this generic planisphere for this podcast. You should print a holder and the coordinate star wheel. If you can print them on heavy paper they will last longer.

A couple of things about planispheres

• You do need to use a planisphere for a specific location! You can't buy a commercial planisphere designed for 50 degrees North latitude and then use it in the Southern hemisphere.
• Planispheres don't show the planets. However many include a chart or booklet that will tell you which constellations to look in for particular planets in particular months. My solution is to look at a monthly sky calendar or map like the one at www.skymaps.com to see if there are any planets or other astronomical notables for the month.
• It is tough to take a picture of a sphere and accurately squash it flat. Some planispheres distort the constellations on the horizon.
• East and west will be oriented correctly once you hold it over head. The window is your horizon.

Monthly Sky maps

These are handy when you want to find planets and comets since these are updated monthly. They don't have the flexibility of planispheres so they usually state a time that the map is set for but now that you have played with your sky wheel and know how to turn it to simulate time you can turn the sky map to match the sky as well

Look insideâ?¦

• Sky and Telescope and Astronomy Magazines
• Free online Skymaps for Northern and Southern Hemisphere Skymaps.com

Need more Southern Hemisphere help?

Southern hemisphere views can use the maps designed for them at the same site but since you have all the sun you will have to wait until 10 pm to use the maps.
Learning the sky in the Southern hemisphere

What to look for in January

• Venus is sinking lower in the sky each night and will soon be gone until she becomes the morning star later in the month. On the evening of the 1st look for her next to the new crescent moon.
• Saturn is becoming the star of the show rising higher each night and is in the constellation cancer, so now that you have your planisphere finding Saturn should be easier.
• On the 4th Earth is at perihelion which means that we are at the point in our orbit closest to the sun!
• The Moon is full on the 14th of this month and waning to new moon on the 29th.

News

• Explosion on the Moon caught and recorded - probably a Taurid meteroid
• The science from Deep Impact on Tempel 1 -
• Mike Salway has posted a wonderful collection of planetary photographs
• Hubble finds a couple of more moon and rings for Uranus and confirms a moon find from Voyager 2

Music

• Intro: Bill deRome's "The Sundial"
• Fade out: Red River's "Ring in the Old" a end of the year song!