91.5 KRCC's Looking Up

This week on Looking Up Hal talks about April showers of a different sort - the Lyrid meteor shower. If you are an early riser, or a stay-up-all-nighter, the pre-dawn hours of April 22 nd have a special show ready for you – the annual Lyrid meteor shower.

Bruce Bookout has been some days in preperation for this week's episode of Looking Up... Our springtime brings to view a northern-sky asterism many amateur astronomers call the Kite. An asterism is a recognizable pattern of stars that’s not one of the “official” 88 constellations. The Big Dipper is an asterism. So is the Northern Cross. The Kite is actually the constellation Boötes, the Herdsman.

A new month is upon us, and Hal, our stellar court jester, makes a valiant attempt at a little bit of astronomical humor on this edition of Looking Up. Winter is slowly slipping away, and so I’d like talk with you about one star soon to disappear in the west, the winter star Aludra, in the constellation of Canis Major, the big dog.

Bruce Bookout carries the weight of this week's episode of Looking Up in which four majestic stars come together for something special. Why? Because we want you to know how ancient cultures viewed the night sky. Around 3000 BCE, the Persians looked at the sky saw kingliness. They had four stars they considered “Royal Stars” ; Aldebaran, Antares, Fomalhaut and Regulus.

This week on Looking Up we learn about a distant star that sure could use a leg up on finding another supply of hydrogen for its core. If you have been thinking that these Looking Up segments are increasingly going to the dogs, I must agree, at least about today, because I want to tell you about a neat star in the constellation Canis Major, or the big dog, that follows Orion the Hunter across the Colorado night sky right now. The special star is Mirzam, the right front leg of the big dog, below

On this week's episode of Looking Up we hear about two familiar constellations and what they have in common. We’ve talked before about most everyone’s favorite winter constellation, Orion the Hunter. We’ve also talked about Taurus the Bull, who is the target of Orion’s hunt. And today, I want to talk with you about a cool star in Taurus that is visible in the Colorado night sky right now.

Good news/bad news on this week's episode of Looking Up. Now you can check the weather before your trip to Mars, but you probably won't like it. We are, or at least I hope we are, nearing the end of a long and cold winter. I for one do not like cold temps, but I do like what a great job the national weather service does in keeping us up to date on the weather forecast. Today I want to tell you about a very different weather prediction site that is available to you, over at nasa.gov.

Sirius may be the 'big dog' in the constellation Canis Major but Wezen can throw its 'weight' around, too, as we learn on this week's Looking Up. Today I want to tell you about a very interesting star in the Colorado night sky right now, but be sure to lift with your knees when you look at the star Wezen. The name means, well, literally weight. Wezen is the third brightest star in the constellation of Canis Major, the big dog.

Hal is 'over the moon' in bringing us this week's episode of Looking Up. One object I never tire of is our old, dependable Moon. I really love the Moon, and I love to explore the mountains, ridges, and craters through my telescopes.

Hal Bidlack takes a measured approach to the constellation Sextan in this week's episode of Looking Up. As this month’s shows mark four years since I first started making Looking Up episodes, I thought today I’d so something a bit different than I have been the last 200 plus episodes.