PAUL Welcome to Idaho Skies on Radio Boise. This is the second week of December. We’re your hosts, Paul.. RACHEL ..Rachel.. KRIS ..And Kris PAUL This week we’re speaking with Chris Anderson at the Centennial Observatory in Twin Falls. So Chris, what’s the big astronomical even for this week? CHRIS I think it would have to be the Geminid meteor shower which peaks this Friday morning in the early morning hours. KRIS Can you explain to us what exactly a meteor shower is? CHRIS A meteor shower is when Earth plows through a stream of debris left behind by a comet, a lot like you car driving through a cloud of bugs and splattering on your windshield on a summer night. RACHEL So which comet did the Geminids originate from? CHRIS It’s not one of the ones you’ve probably heard of, like comet Halley or Hale-Bopp, this is actually an object known as Phaethon, which is sort of a burned out comet, kind of a cross between a comet and an asteroid. PAUL So will our listeners need a telescope or pair of binoculars to see this shower? CHRIS Absolutely not. In fact, you don’t want to use a telescope or pair of binoculars because they limit how much of the sky you can see. Meteor showers occur all over the sky and you want your eyes to take in as much as possible at once. KRIS Chris, is there a particular part of the sky where we’ll be more likely to see to se the meteor shower? CHRIS Well they’ll appear to emanate from the constellation of Gemini, which in the pre-dawn hours will be pretty high in the sky. If you look near Gemini, you’ll see more meteors, but they’ll have shorter paths and if you look further away, you’ll see fewer but they’ll have longer paths. RACHEL Is 2007 a good year to view the shower? CHRIS As a matter of fact, it is. The moon is going to be setting early enough in the night so it won’t interfere with the shower. Plus, the meteors appear to be getting stronger every year. When they were first discovered in 1862, that was the first year anyone had seen them and there seems to be more of them every year that goes by. KRIS If I can’t go out Friday morning, is there another time I can see this meteor shower? CHRIS Yes. In fact, the shower lasts for the better part of the week. It will be strongest on Friday morning, but f you can’t get out until Saturday morning or if you want to look a little bit earlier like on Thursday morning, you should more than the usual number of meteors those nights as well. RACHEL So Chris, can you tell us a little bit about the observatory? CHRIS Absolutely. The Centennial Observatory is one of the largest public telescopes in Idaho, in fact the second largest. It’s also one of the largest handicap accessible telescopes in the world. And we’re open the second Saturday of every month year around. And we have other events as well and people can find out about those by calling our information line at (208) 732-MOON PAUL Thanks Chris. PAUL That’s Idaho Skies for the second week of December. Join us next week for more space and astronomy news in Idaho and beyond. For Idaho Skies this is Paul. RACHEL ..Rachel.. KRIS .. and Kris.