Looking Up

This week on Looking Up Bruce Bookout tells us a bit about the naming process for asteroids. During another 80’s musical interlude, I wondered how asteroids are named. Asteroids are those left-over parts of the cloud that formed our solar system.

Mars does a disappearing act in the early morning sky on February 18. But not to worry, it’s just hiding behind the moon, as Hal explains on this week’s Looking Up. We’ve talked before about how the planets revolve around the Sun in pretty much a flat plane that is roughly circular.

This week on Looking up Hal informs us about a star named Porrima. But is it one star or two? High in the east in the Colorado night sky is the very interesting star Porrima. Or rather, I should say stars, because there are actually two stars orbiting each other, only 38 ly away.

This week on Looking Up Hal grabs a celestial lion by the tail. One of my favorite constellations is Leo the Lion, now rising in the east after sunset. Leo has lots of interesting stars, and it also actually looks a bit like what it is supposed to be, a lion.

This week on Looking Up Bruce Bookout takes on a listener question.  One of our listeners, Scott K., asked a great question that is the basis of how we know, what we know about the universe.

This week on Looking Up Hal doubles our pleasure and doubles our fun by revealing some of the secrets of the Gemini Twins. Did you ever wish you had a twin brother or sister? Someone to be with and to talk to all the time?

This week’s Looking Up has a certain flow to it as Hal talks about the river constellation. There are lots of constellations up in the Colorado night sky all year round, with 88 total constellations all told.

Fortunately, our very own star won’t be falling down from the sky anytime soon. However, we are the closest to ol’ Sol right now than at any other point of our yearly path around the sun, as we learn on Looking Up this week. Well, we are now in the deep, dark, days of winter.