On the Astronomy show today I will be looking at the life of Jerrie Cobb the record breaking pilot and advocate for female spaceflight who has died recently at the age of 88. She was the first woman to pass all the same pre flight tests as NASA's seven Mercury astronauts.
There will be the usual look at the night sky for the next seven nights including locating the North Star at the time that the great pyramids were built and how the light from the star Arcturus opened a great exposition in Chicago in 1933. The other regular features include the astronomy news with details that an asteroid called Apophis will near miss the Earth on April Friday 13th 2029 by just 19,000 miles. The point about Apophis is that it is around 1100 feet or 340 metres across. News is coming from China that they hope to build a moon base at the south pole of the Moon within the next ten years.
The astronomical scrapbook looking at events that happened this week in history features David Fabricius who died in 1617 and was the first person to observe a variable star, omicron Ceti or as it is sometimes known as Mira and in 1861 John Tebbutt the Australasian astronomer discovered the great comet which would be seen by Queen Victoria using a telescope that was made by Thomas Cooke of York. The Messier marathon has reached M102 in Draco the Spindle wheel Galaxy. This plus the round up of news from astronomical societies in the north of England.
The Astronomy show every Monday evening between 7.00 pm and 9.00 pm only on Drystone Radio 103.5 FM. The show can be heard live on line at www.drystoneradio.com or listen to the show later on the Drystone Radio podcast.
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