#85 - July 2019 Part 1

The Discussion: Paul pulls a drowning child out of a river and we discuss the BBC’s current astronomy-themed TV programme, The Planets. A drunken and sarcastic Jen is a good Jen and a rather pleasant surprise from listener Lee Stevens

The News: Rounding up the astronomy news this month we have:

• Taking Spitzer out “like a dog on the moor with a shotgun”
• The International Astronomical Union launches a competition to name an exoplanet in each of the countries it operates, at nameexoworlds.iau.org
• The chances of exoplanet habitability may be lower than thought.
• Two exoplanet discoveries with very good habitability potential
• NASA announces two more heliospheric missions, PUNCH & TRACERS
• The Mars Curiosity Rover says, ‘No, there are methane spikes on Mars’.

The Sky Guide: Covering the solar system and deep sky objects on offer to amateur astronomers in July:

Paul: The King of Planets, Jupiter, on offer all month and a partial lunar eclipse on the night of 16th July. For the deep sky, M10 & M12 globular clusters in Ophiuchus.

Ralph: Asteroid 18 Melpomene at opposition on 3rd July. On the 9th of July we have the Ring World, Saturn, at opposition and the Southern Delta Aquariids peak on 28/29th July. For the deep sky, beautiful binary targets Epsilon Lyrae and Albireo.

Main Object: The Earth’s Moon.