Astronomy Daily · S05E163 · “The Long Way Home” · Monday 10 August 2026. Sources verified against primary / institutional outlets. Starship “lost at sea” (Flight 13) • Flight 13 launched 24 July 2026 from Starbase, South Texas; the upper stage (“Ship,” Ship 40, ~52 m) made the softest Starship water landing yet in the Indian Ocean off Western Australia — and, in a program first, survived intact and afloat. • SpaceX had not planned to recover it. Musk confirmed the salvage attempt on 28 July (“We’re sending a ship out to recover Starship”); recovery ship Go Australis was joined by Norwegian tugs Normand Ranger and Skimmer Tide, with a tow line to the nose. • On 7 August, Musk said recovery is “not looking good right now” in rough seas — but the team had already obtained close-up photos of critical heat-shield and engine regions for future upgrades. A saltwater-soaked Ship was never going to be reflown. • Heat shield: on SpaceX’s first quarterly earnings call (4 August) Musk said he’d “consider the heat-shield problem solved,” long the biggest hurdle to full reuse. • The flight also deployed 20 next-gen Starlink V3 satellites; the Super Heavy booster had engine trouble and was lost in the Gulf of Mexico. Stacked, Starship stands ~124 m. Flight 14 is targeted for late August — its first attempt at operational orbit with production Starlink. • Sources: SpaceX / @elonmusk on X (7 Aug); Space.com (Mike Wall, 7 Aug); CNN (3 Aug). Landspace Zhuque-3, second landing attempt • Landspace (private, Beijing, founded 2015) targets liftoff ~7:45 p.m. EDT Mon 10 Aug (23:45 UTC / ≈9:45 a.m. AEST Tue 11 Aug) from Jiuquan, aiming for a propulsive first-stage recovery on legs (Falcon 9-style), landing downrange in Gansu. • The methalox, stainless-steel Zhuque-3 (~66 m) is broadly a Falcon 9 rival. Its Dec 2025 maiden flight reached orbit but the first stage failed its landing burn and crashed. • Accuracy note: this is China’s fourth orbital-class recovery attempt. A Long March 10B already landed via net-capture on 10 July (China became the 2nd nation to land an orbital booster) — so tonight would make Landspace the first Chinese company to attempt a propulsive/landing-legs recovery, not “China’s first.” • Sources: Space.com (7 Aug); Yahoo/Space (7 Aug); launch trackers (NOTAM-based). Uranus’s “breathing” bow shock • New multifluid-MHD modelling shows Uranus’s bow shock expands and contracts over a single ~17-hour Uranian day — driven by the planet’s own extreme rotation and tilted, offset magnetic field, not by changes in the solar wind. • The model is constrained by Voyager 2’s 1986 flyby — still the only direct measurements ever taken inside the Uranian system (a nice callback to E159’s Voyager 2 “Big Bang” lead). • Implications for future ice-giant missions and for the many ice-giant exoplanets now being found. Cao et al., AGU Advances; surfaced via an Eos research spotlight this week. (Framed as newly-spotlighted rather than newly-published.) • Sources: AGU Advances (Cao et al.); Eos research spotlight; phys.org (7 Aug). Total solar eclipse — 12 August 2026 • The only total solar eclipse of 2026. Unusual over-the-pole path: Arctic Siberia → eastern Greenland → western Iceland → northern Spain (clipping NE Portugal) → the Balearics at sunset. • Greatest eclipse ≈17:46 UTC; max totality 2 min 18 s just off Iceland’s west coast, with the Sun only ~26° high. Iceland’s first total eclipse since 1954 (Reykjavik’s first in 593 years); Spain’s first since 1905. • North America sees a partial across the northern tier (Alaska to North Carolina) and most of Canada — deepest in the far north, a shallow bite (10%) from the US Northeast, late morning to early afternoon local. NASA livestream from 1:15 p.m. EDT at nasa.gov/live. • Not visible from the Southern Hemisphere. Sources: NASA eclipse pages; national eclipse guides. Skywatch — both hemispheres • Perseids peak the night of 12–13 August under a new Moon — excellent for the Northern Hemisphere (up to ~50–100/hr from dark sites, best pre-dawn 13 Aug); modest and low for the Southern Hemisphere. • Southern-Hemisphere targets: a pre-dawn planet spread; brilliant evening Venus (brightest ~22 Sep); Comet 10P/Tempel 2 low in the pre-dawn south (binoculars/small scope, dark site). • Aurora watch: a G2 storm produced auroras 7–9 Aug; more activity is possible around 11–12 Aug for high-latitude watchers. • Eye safety: certified ISO 12312-2 eclipse glasses required for all partial phases; never view the Sun through an unfiltered camera, binoculars or telescope.
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00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 Picture a rocket the height of a 15story
00:00:03 --> 00:00:05 [music] building lying on its side in
00:00:05 --> 00:00:08 the Indian Ocean, 800 km off Western
00:00:08 --> 00:00:10 Australia and [music] a rope running
00:00:10 --> 00:00:13 from its nose to a tug trying to drag it
00:00:13 --> 00:00:15 home through a rising swell.
00:00:15 --> 00:00:17 >> That's not a thought experiment. That's
00:00:17 --> 00:00:19 where the [music] top half of a SpaceX
00:00:19 --> 00:00:21 Starship has spent the last 2 weeks.
00:00:21 --> 00:00:23 >> And whether it ever reaches [music] an
00:00:23 --> 00:00:26 Australian port is right now genuinely
00:00:26 --> 00:00:28 up in the air. Good day and welcome to
00:00:28 --> 00:00:30 Astronomy Daily. I'm Anna.
00:00:30 --> 00:00:33 >> And I'm Avery. It's Monday, the 10th of
00:00:33 --> 00:00:35 August, 2026.
00:00:35 --> 00:00:36 >> There's a thread running through today's
00:00:36 --> 00:00:39 show. Things taking the long way home. A
00:00:39 --> 00:00:42 Starship under tow. A Chinese booster
00:00:42 --> 00:00:44 trying to fly itself back to the pad
00:00:44 --> 00:00:47 tonight. 40-year-old Voyager 2 data
00:00:47 --> 00:00:50 still turning up surprises at Uranus.
00:00:50 --> 00:00:52 And eclipse chasers heading to the top
00:00:52 --> 00:00:55 of the world for 2 minutes of darkness 3
00:00:55 --> 00:00:58 days from now. and plus the best meteor
00:00:58 --> 00:01:00 shower of the year peaking under a new
00:01:00 --> 00:01:03 moon. It's a big week. Let's get into
00:01:03 --> 00:01:05 it. So, let's go back to the 24th of
00:01:06 --> 00:01:09 July. Starship's 13th full test flight
00:01:09 --> 00:01:12 lifts off from Starbase in South Texas.
00:01:12 --> 00:01:15 And this one goes well, really well. The
00:01:15 --> 00:01:17 upper stage, the part SpaceX just calls
00:01:17 --> 00:01:20 ship, flies its suborbital arc and comes
00:01:20 --> 00:01:22 down for a splashdown in the Indian
00:01:22 --> 00:01:24 Ocean off the coast of Western
00:01:24 --> 00:01:27 Australia, exactly where it was aimed.
00:01:27 --> 00:01:29 And here's the first ever bit. Every
00:01:29 --> 00:01:31 previous ship that came down over the
00:01:31 --> 00:01:34 ocean broke up or was deliberately
00:01:34 --> 00:01:37 destroyed. This one, ship 40, made what
00:01:37 --> 00:01:40 observers called the softest Starship
00:01:40 --> 00:01:42 water landing yet. tipped over as it hit
00:01:42 --> 00:01:45 the waves and then just stayed in one
00:01:45 --> 00:01:46 piece.
00:01:46 --> 00:01:48 >> It floated airtight, bobbing in the
00:01:48 --> 00:01:51 swell. Onboard cameras showed all six
00:01:51 --> 00:01:53 Raptor engines with no visible external
00:01:53 --> 00:01:56 damage. Water lapping at the lens. A
00:01:56 --> 00:01:58 SpaceX spokesperson called it on the
00:01:58 --> 00:02:01 live webcast a dream scenario,
00:02:01 --> 00:02:04 >> which it was because SpaceX genuinely
00:02:04 --> 00:02:07 did not expect to get this vehicle back.
00:02:07 --> 00:02:09 The whole point of the flight was the
00:02:09 --> 00:02:11 data. The heat shield is the thing that
00:02:11 --> 00:02:13 kept Elon Musk up at night for years.
00:02:14 --> 00:02:16 The tiles that protect ship on the way
00:02:16 --> 00:02:18 back through the atmosphere. And on this
00:02:18 --> 00:02:19 flight, it held.
00:02:20 --> 00:02:22 >> In fact, on the 4th of August, on the
00:02:22 --> 00:02:24 company's first ever quarterly earnings
00:02:24 --> 00:02:27 call, its first since going public, Mus
00:02:27 --> 00:02:29 said, and I'm paraphrasing only
00:02:29 --> 00:02:31 slightly, that he doesn't want to jinx
00:02:31 --> 00:02:33 it, but he'd consider the heat shield
00:02:33 --> 00:02:36 problem solved. That's a big claim. For
00:02:36 --> 00:02:38 a rocket meant to be fully and rapidly
00:02:38 --> 00:02:41 reusable, the heat shield was the last
00:02:41 --> 00:02:44 great unknown. So, a ship that survives
00:02:44 --> 00:02:46 re-entry, survives the water, and floats
00:02:46 --> 00:02:49 there intact, is suddenly a floating
00:02:49 --> 00:02:50 laboratory.
00:02:50 --> 00:02:53 >> And that changed the maths. On the 28th
00:02:53 --> 00:02:56 of July, Musk posted simply, "We're
00:02:56 --> 00:02:59 sending a ship out to recover Starship."
00:03:00 --> 00:03:02 The SpaceX vessel Go Arrales had been
00:03:02 --> 00:03:05 shadowing it since splashdown. Two
00:03:05 --> 00:03:08 Norwegian Tugs, a Normand Ranger and
00:03:08 --> 00:03:11 Skimmer Tide steamed out to join. By
00:03:11 --> 00:03:13 early August, satellite imagery showed
00:03:13 --> 00:03:16 all three working the vehicle with a tow
00:03:16 --> 00:03:18 line already made fast to the nose
00:03:18 --> 00:03:19 section.
00:03:19 --> 00:03:21 >> For context, this thing had already
00:03:21 --> 00:03:24 drifted more than 400 km. The whole
00:03:24 --> 00:03:27 convoy is over 1 km off the
00:03:27 --> 00:03:30 Australian coast, aiming, according to
00:03:30 --> 00:03:32 imagery based reporting, for a western
00:03:32 --> 00:03:35 Australian port. Vampier and Port
00:03:35 --> 00:03:37 Headland have both been floated as the
00:03:37 --> 00:03:38 likely destination.
00:03:38 --> 00:03:40 >> And then on the 7th of August, the tone
00:03:40 --> 00:03:43 shifted. Musk posted an update.
00:03:43 --> 00:03:45 Unfortunately, ship recovery is not
00:03:45 --> 00:03:48 looking good right now. The team's been
00:03:48 --> 00:03:50 fighting increasingly rough seas, but
00:03:50 --> 00:03:53 and this is the important part, he added
00:03:53 --> 00:03:54 that they were still able to get
00:03:54 --> 00:03:56 close-up photos of critical regions of
00:03:56 --> 00:03:58 the heat shield and the engines for
00:03:58 --> 00:03:59 future upgrades.
00:03:59 --> 00:04:02 >> Though read that carefully, even if the
00:04:02 --> 00:04:05 tow fails, even if ship 40 never reaches
00:04:05 --> 00:04:08 a jetty, SpaceX has already banked most
00:04:08 --> 00:04:10 of what it wanted, the inspection
00:04:10 --> 00:04:13 imagery. Honestly, a ship soaked in salt
00:04:13 --> 00:04:15 water for two weeks was never going to
00:04:15 --> 00:04:17 be refurbished and flown again anyway.
00:04:17 --> 00:04:19 >> All right. The prize was never the
00:04:19 --> 00:04:21 hardware. It was the look at the
00:04:21 --> 00:04:23 hardware. Which is why as of our
00:04:23 --> 00:04:25 recording, the story is beautifully
00:04:25 --> 00:04:28 unresolved. A giant rocket still afloat,
00:04:28 --> 00:04:30 still under tow in a race against the
00:04:30 --> 00:04:32 weather off Western Australia.
00:04:32 --> 00:04:34 >> Worth remembering how big Giant is here.
00:04:34 --> 00:04:38 Stacked, Starship stands about 124 m
00:04:38 --> 00:04:40 tall. The biggest, most powerful rocket
00:04:40 --> 00:04:44 ever built. The ship on its own is 52 m.
00:04:44 --> 00:04:46 That's what's on the end of that rope.
00:04:46 --> 00:04:48 >> And the flight did its day job, too.
00:04:48 --> 00:04:50 During the mission, ship deployed 20
00:04:50 --> 00:04:53 next generation Starlink V3 satellites,
00:04:53 --> 00:04:55 the bigger broadband birds SpaceX wants
00:04:55 --> 00:04:57 to fly by the 100.
00:04:57 --> 00:05:00 Those particular 20 came straight back
00:05:00 --> 00:05:01 down by design, but it was a dress
00:05:02 --> 00:05:03 rehearsal for the future. The booster,
00:05:03 --> 00:05:06 meanwhile, the superheavy had a rougher
00:05:06 --> 00:05:08 day. Engine trouble on descent and it
00:05:08 --> 00:05:10 came down hard in the Gulf of Mexico and
00:05:10 --> 00:05:13 exploded. So, a triumphant ship, a lost
00:05:13 --> 00:05:15 booster, and a twoe sea drama that may
00:05:15 --> 00:05:17 or may not have a tidy ending.
00:05:17 --> 00:05:19 >> And the look ahead is quick. Mus says
00:05:19 --> 00:05:22 the next one, flight 14, is targeted for
00:05:22 --> 00:05:24 late August, and it's meant to be
00:05:24 --> 00:05:26 Starship's first crack at reaching
00:05:26 --> 00:05:28 operational orbit while carrying
00:05:28 --> 00:05:30 production Starling satellites. So, the
00:05:30 --> 00:05:33 pace isn't slowing, but for our part of
00:05:33 --> 00:05:35 the world, this is the rare week the
00:05:35 --> 00:05:36 Starship story washed up on an
00:05:36 --> 00:05:39 Australian shore. Almost literally.
00:05:39 --> 00:05:41 >> Almost literally. Let's bring it home
00:05:41 --> 00:05:43 from the other direction now because
00:05:43 --> 00:05:45 someone else is trying to land a booster
00:05:45 --> 00:05:48 tonight. Because reusability isn't just
00:05:48 --> 00:05:51 a SpaceX story anymore. Tonight, our
00:05:51 --> 00:05:53 tonight, a Chinese company called
00:05:53 --> 00:05:56 Landspace is going to try something only
00:05:56 --> 00:05:59 SpaceX has truly mastered. flying an
00:05:59 --> 00:06:02 orbital class booster back down and
00:06:02 --> 00:06:03 landing it on its legs.
00:06:03 --> 00:06:05 >> And Landspace is a private outfit
00:06:05 --> 00:06:08 founded in Beijing back in 2015. Their
00:06:08 --> 00:06:11 rocket is the Zukay 3, stainless steel,
00:06:11 --> 00:06:14 methane, and liquid oxygen engines about
00:06:14 --> 00:06:17 66 m tall. In capability, it's broadly a
00:06:17 --> 00:06:18 Falcon 9 rival.
00:06:18 --> 00:06:20 >> And the timing for local listeners,
00:06:20 --> 00:06:23 liftoff is targeted to a quarter 8 on
00:06:23 --> 00:06:25 Monday evening, US Eastern time, which
00:06:25 --> 00:06:28 is a/4 to midnight UTC. And for us in
00:06:28 --> 00:06:30 Sydney, it's about a quarter to 10 on
00:06:30 --> 00:06:32 Tuesday morning. It goes from Juan in
00:06:32 --> 00:06:34 China's northwest.
00:06:34 --> 00:06:35 >> Now, here's what we need to be precise
00:06:36 --> 00:06:37 because the headlines get this slightly
00:06:38 --> 00:06:40 wrong. This isn't China's first booster
00:06:40 --> 00:06:43 landing. It's China's fourth orbital
00:06:43 --> 00:06:45 class recovery attempt. And one of those
00:06:45 --> 00:06:47 already worked. Back on the 10th of
00:06:47 --> 00:06:49 July, a long March 10B was caught using
00:06:50 --> 00:06:52 a net capture system, which made China
00:06:52 --> 00:06:54 the second nation ever to land an
00:06:54 --> 00:06:56 orbital booster. So, what makes tonight
00:06:56 --> 00:06:59 different is the method. Landspace isn't
00:06:59 --> 00:07:01 going for a net. It's going for the full
00:07:01 --> 00:07:04 Falcon 9 move, a powered descent, a
00:07:04 --> 00:07:06 powered landing burn, and legs, setting
00:07:06 --> 00:07:09 itself down on a pad down range in Gansu
00:07:09 --> 00:07:11 Province. If it works, Landspace becomes
00:07:11 --> 00:07:13 the first Chinese company to pull off
00:07:13 --> 00:07:15 that kind of propulsive booster landing.
00:07:15 --> 00:07:18 >> And they've been close before. The Zuko
00:07:18 --> 00:07:20 3's maiden flight last December actually
00:07:20 --> 00:07:22 did its main job. The second stage
00:07:22 --> 00:07:24 reached orbit. It was the first stage
00:07:24 --> 00:07:26 that let them down. The landing burn
00:07:26 --> 00:07:28 faltered a few kilome up and the booster
00:07:28 --> 00:07:31 came down in a fireball. By some
00:07:31 --> 00:07:33 accounts, they were within about 17
00:07:33 --> 00:07:34 seconds of a landing.
00:07:34 --> 00:07:37 >> 17 seconds. That's the margin they're
00:07:37 --> 00:07:39 trying to close tonight. A clean static
00:07:39 --> 00:07:41 fire test at the end of June set it up.
00:07:41 --> 00:07:43 And airspace closure notices point to
00:07:44 --> 00:07:44 this evening.
00:07:44 --> 00:07:46 >> Why does it matter to the rest of us?
00:07:46 --> 00:07:48 Because landing and reflying boosters is
00:07:48 --> 00:07:50 what dragged the cost of getting to
00:07:50 --> 00:07:53 orbit down in the first place. A second
00:07:53 --> 00:07:55 company doing it on a different
00:07:55 --> 00:07:57 continent with a methane rocket is how a
00:07:57 --> 00:07:59 one company capability becomes an
00:07:59 --> 00:08:00 industry.
00:08:00 --> 00:08:02 >> We'll be recording before the window
00:08:02 --> 00:08:04 opens, so we're calling it forward. If
00:08:04 --> 00:08:06 you're listening later in the day, check
00:08:06 --> 00:08:07 astronomyaily.io.
00:08:08 --> 00:08:09 We'll have the result.
00:08:09 --> 00:08:11 >> Now, from rocket recoveries to a planet
00:08:11 --> 00:08:13 lying on its side, there's a lovely
00:08:13 --> 00:08:15 result doing the rounds this week about
00:08:15 --> 00:08:17 Uranus, and it comes with an old friend
00:08:17 --> 00:08:20 attached. Set the scene first because
00:08:20 --> 00:08:21 Uranus is the oddball of the solar
00:08:22 --> 00:08:24 system. It doesn't spin upright like
00:08:24 --> 00:08:27 Earth. It's tipped right over, rolling
00:08:27 --> 00:08:29 around the sun on its side, and its
00:08:29 --> 00:08:31 magnetic field is stranger still, tilted
00:08:31 --> 00:08:34 about 60° from its spin axis and offset
00:08:34 --> 00:08:37 from the planet's center. Nothing about
00:08:37 --> 00:08:38 it is neat,
00:08:38 --> 00:08:39 >> which matters for something called the
00:08:39 --> 00:08:42 bow shock. That's the boundary out in
00:08:42 --> 00:08:44 front of a planet where the solar wind,
00:08:44 --> 00:08:47 the constant stream of particles off the
00:08:47 --> 00:08:49 sun, slams into the planet's magnetic
00:08:49 --> 00:08:52 field and abruptly slows down. At Earth,
00:08:52 --> 00:08:54 that boundary sits there fairly
00:08:54 --> 00:08:56 steadily. It only really moves when the
00:08:56 --> 00:08:59 sun kicks up. But at Uranus, this new
00:08:59 --> 00:09:01 modeling shows the bow shock is anything
00:09:01 --> 00:09:04 but steady. It swells and shrinks. It
00:09:04 --> 00:09:06 breathes over the course of a single
00:09:06 --> 00:09:09 uranian day, which is about 17 hours.
00:09:09 --> 00:09:11 And here's the clever bit. Because
00:09:11 --> 00:09:14 Uranus is so tilted and lopsided, every
00:09:14 --> 00:09:16 few hours, a different part of that
00:09:16 --> 00:09:18 wonky magnetic field is turned to face
00:09:18 --> 00:09:21 the wind. So, the shape of the shield
00:09:21 --> 00:09:23 keeps changing. The team ran simulations
00:09:24 --> 00:09:26 where they held the solar wind perfectly
00:09:26 --> 00:09:28 steady, and the breathing still
00:09:28 --> 00:09:30 happened, which means it's driven by the
00:09:30 --> 00:09:33 planet's own rotation, not by the sun.
00:09:33 --> 00:09:36 The studies in the journal AGU advances
00:09:36 --> 00:09:38 led by Sinco and colleagues. And this is
00:09:38 --> 00:09:40 where our old friend comes in because to
00:09:40 --> 00:09:42 anchor the model, they leaned on the
00:09:42 --> 00:09:45 only direct measurements humanity has
00:09:45 --> 00:09:47 ever taken inside the uranian system.
00:09:47 --> 00:09:50 >> Voyager 2, which regular listeners will
00:09:50 --> 00:09:52 remember from last week. It's the same
00:09:52 --> 00:09:54 spacecraft whose team just pulled off
00:09:54 --> 00:09:56 that big bang power maneuver to keep it
00:09:56 --> 00:10:00 alive. Voyager 2 swept past Uranus back
00:10:00 --> 00:10:03 in January 1986. caught a single
00:10:03 --> 00:10:06 crossing of that bow shock and moved on.
00:10:06 --> 00:10:09 40 years later, that one data set is
00:10:09 --> 00:10:11 still the ground truth every Uranus
00:10:11 --> 00:10:12 model has to match.
00:10:12 --> 00:10:15 >> I love that. A 40 decade old flyby,
00:10:15 --> 00:10:18 still doing frontline science. And it's
00:10:18 --> 00:10:20 not just trivia about one weird planet.
00:10:20 --> 00:10:22 A lot of the exoplanets we're finding
00:10:22 --> 00:10:25 out there are ice giants like Uranus.
00:10:25 --> 00:10:26 Though understanding how a tilted
00:10:26 --> 00:10:29 off-kilter world handles the stellar
00:10:29 --> 00:10:31 wind gives us a template for worlds
00:10:31 --> 00:10:33 around other stars entirely.
00:10:33 --> 00:10:35 >> Fair to say too, this is a modeling
00:10:35 --> 00:10:37 result that's been quietly out for a
00:10:37 --> 00:10:39 little while and only got its moment in
00:10:39 --> 00:10:41 the spotlight this week. But it's a
00:10:41 --> 00:10:43 genuinely new way of seeing an old
00:10:43 --> 00:10:45 planet and a reminder that the next
00:10:45 --> 00:10:47 mission to Uranus can't come soon
00:10:47 --> 00:10:50 enough. Right. 3 days from now on
00:10:50 --> 00:10:52 Wednesday the 12th, the moon's shadow
00:10:52 --> 00:10:54 sweeps across the Earth for the only
00:10:54 --> 00:10:57 total solar eclipse of 2026. And this
00:10:57 --> 00:10:59 one is strange in the best way.
00:10:59 --> 00:11:00 >> Strange how?
00:11:00 --> 00:11:03 >> Most eclipse paths race west to east
00:11:03 --> 00:11:05 across the planet. This one goes up and
00:11:05 --> 00:11:08 over the top of the world. It begins in
00:11:08 --> 00:11:10 the Arctic over remote Siberian Russia,
00:11:10 --> 00:11:13 arcs across the north pole and comes
00:11:13 --> 00:11:15 down over eastern Greenland, then the
00:11:15 --> 00:11:18 west coast of Iceland, then northern
00:11:18 --> 00:11:20 Spain, clipping a tiny corner of
00:11:20 --> 00:11:22 Portugal and finishes out over the
00:11:22 --> 00:11:25 Balearic Islands right at sunset.
00:11:25 --> 00:11:27 >> And because it's so far north, totality
00:11:27 --> 00:11:30 is short and the sun sits low. Greatest
00:11:30 --> 00:11:32 eclipse is about a/4 to 6 in the
00:11:32 --> 00:11:35 evening, UTC, just off Iceland's west
00:11:35 --> 00:11:38 coast. And even there, totality lasts
00:11:38 --> 00:11:40 only 2 minutes and 18 seconds with the
00:11:40 --> 00:11:43 sun barely 26° above the horizon.
00:11:43 --> 00:11:44 >> For the places in the path, it's
00:11:44 --> 00:11:46 history. Iceland hasn't seen a total
00:11:46 --> 00:11:49 eclipse since 1954. And for Riguvic,
00:11:49 --> 00:11:52 it's the first in 593 years. Totality
00:11:52 --> 00:11:55 there lands around a/4 to 6:00 in the
00:11:55 --> 00:11:57 evening local time. Spain hasn't had one
00:11:57 --> 00:12:00 since 1905. From Oedo and Jon, it's
00:12:00 --> 00:12:03 about 8 in the evening, low in a sunset
00:12:03 --> 00:12:04 sky.
00:12:04 --> 00:12:05 >> Audience question. What about North
00:12:05 --> 00:12:07 America?
00:12:07 --> 00:12:09 >> North America gets a partial, no
00:12:09 --> 00:12:11 totality, but a real bite out of the
00:12:11 --> 00:12:14 sun. NASA has it visible right across
00:12:14 --> 00:12:16 the northern tier from Alaska all the
00:12:16 --> 00:12:19 way to North Carolina and over most of
00:12:19 --> 00:12:21 Canada. The deepest coverage is up in
00:12:21 --> 00:12:24 the far north in Alaska. By the time
00:12:24 --> 00:12:26 you're down on the US East Coast, it's a
00:12:26 --> 00:12:29 shallower bite under 10% for somewhere
00:12:29 --> 00:12:31 like New York. And the timing for the
00:12:31 --> 00:12:32 US,
00:12:32 --> 00:12:34 >> it's a late morning into early afternoon
00:12:34 --> 00:12:36 event, depending on how far west you
00:12:36 --> 00:12:39 are. The simplest anchor, NASA begins
00:12:39 --> 00:12:42 its live broadcast at a quarter 1 in the
00:12:42 --> 00:12:47 afternoon Eastern time at nasa.gov/live.
00:12:47 --> 00:12:49 So even if you're nowhere near the path,
00:12:49 --> 00:12:51 you can watch totality from Greenland
00:12:51 --> 00:12:54 and Spain in real time.
00:12:54 --> 00:12:55 >> Which is exactly what our southern
00:12:55 --> 00:12:57 hemisphere listeners will be doing.
00:12:57 --> 00:12:59 Because from Australia, this eclipse
00:12:59 --> 00:13:02 simply isn't visible at all. Nothing
00:13:02 --> 00:13:04 from Sydney. But don't worry, your night
00:13:04 --> 00:13:06 sky this week has plenty going on. And
00:13:06 --> 00:13:08 we're getting to that right now.
00:13:08 --> 00:13:10 >> We are because the eclipse is only half
00:13:10 --> 00:13:13 of a genuine skywatch double feature.
00:13:13 --> 00:13:15 Avery, take us home.
00:13:15 --> 00:13:17 >> Here's the gift of this week. The 12th
00:13:17 --> 00:13:20 of August gives you an eclipse by day.
00:13:20 --> 00:13:22 And that same night into the 13th, the
00:13:22 --> 00:13:25 Perciads at their peak under a brand new
00:13:25 --> 00:13:28 moon. No moonlight to wash them out. It
00:13:28 --> 00:13:30 doesn't line up like this often.
00:13:30 --> 00:13:32 >> Let's do the north first because that's
00:13:32 --> 00:13:34 where both events favor. Northern
00:13:34 --> 00:13:36 hemisphere listeners, this is your year
00:13:36 --> 00:13:39 for the Perciads. Dark skies, no moon,
00:13:39 --> 00:13:42 the radiant climbing high. Best viewing
00:13:42 --> 00:13:44 is after midnight into the pre-dawn
00:13:44 --> 00:13:47 hours of the 12th and 13th. From a
00:13:47 --> 00:13:50 properly dark site, you could see 50 to
00:13:50 --> 00:13:53 100 an hour. For North America, the
00:13:53 --> 00:13:55 small hours before dawn on the 13th are
00:13:55 --> 00:13:57 the sweet spot.
00:13:57 --> 00:13:59 >> And the bonus for northern watchers, the
00:13:59 --> 00:14:02 sun's been active. A geomagnetic storm
00:14:02 --> 00:14:04 lit up auroras across high latitudes
00:14:04 --> 00:14:06 over the weekend, and there's a chance
00:14:06 --> 00:14:08 of more around the 11th and 12th. So, if
00:14:08 --> 00:14:11 you're up north chasing meteors, keep
00:14:11 --> 00:14:13 one eye on the horizon for the lights.
00:14:13 --> 00:14:15 >> Then, the eclipse recap for our North
00:14:15 --> 00:14:17 American listeners. A partial on
00:14:17 --> 00:14:19 Wednesday, late morning to early
00:14:19 --> 00:14:22 afternoon your time, deepest in the far
00:14:22 --> 00:14:24 north, and NASA's stream starts a
00:14:24 --> 00:14:27 quarter past 1 Eastern if the sky won't
00:14:27 --> 00:14:28 cooperate.
00:14:28 --> 00:14:30 >> Now, south of the equator, Australia,
00:14:30 --> 00:14:33 New Zealand, the eclipse passes you by,
00:14:33 --> 00:14:35 and the Perciads barely clear your
00:14:35 --> 00:14:37 northern horizon, so rates are modest at
00:14:38 --> 00:14:41 best. But your sky is far from empty.
00:14:41 --> 00:14:43 >> Not at all. Step out before dawn and
00:14:43 --> 00:14:46 there's a spread of planets strung
00:14:46 --> 00:14:48 across the sky. Look west after sunset
00:14:48 --> 00:14:51 and Venus is unmistakable. Brilliance
00:14:51 --> 00:14:54 climbing higher each evening, heading
00:14:54 --> 00:14:56 for its brightest around the 22nd of
00:14:56 --> 00:14:58 September. And low in the pre-dawn
00:14:58 --> 00:15:02 south, comet 10ple 2 is still within
00:15:02 --> 00:15:04 reach of a small telescope or good
00:15:04 --> 00:15:06 binoculars from a dark sight. from
00:15:06 --> 00:15:09 Sydney. Give yourself that clear eastern
00:15:09 --> 00:15:12 to southern horizon before first light.
00:15:12 --> 00:15:15 >> So, wherever you are, north or south,
00:15:15 --> 00:15:16 there's something to look up at this
00:15:16 --> 00:15:19 week. But before anyone points anything
00:15:19 --> 00:15:22 at the sun, only during the brief
00:15:22 --> 00:15:24 moments of totality, and only if you are
00:15:24 --> 00:15:26 standing inside the narrow path can you
00:15:26 --> 00:15:29 ever look at the sun without protection.
00:15:29 --> 00:15:31 Everywhere else, and that includes all
00:15:31 --> 00:15:33 of North America, all of the sun's
00:15:33 --> 00:15:36 partial phases, you must keep certified
00:15:36 --> 00:15:40 ISO 12-2
00:15:40 --> 00:15:43 eclipse glasses on the entire time.
00:15:43 --> 00:15:45 Never look through an unfiltered camera,
00:15:45 --> 00:15:47 binoculars, or telescope. The
00:15:47 --> 00:15:50 concentrated light causes instant
00:15:50 --> 00:15:52 permanent eye damage. If in doubt, watch
00:15:52 --> 00:15:53 the light stream.
00:15:53 --> 00:15:55 >> And that's the show for today.
00:15:55 --> 00:15:58 Everything we covered, the starship tow,
00:15:58 --> 00:16:00 tonight's land space landing attempt,
00:16:00 --> 00:16:02 the Urenus study, and full eclipse and
00:16:02 --> 00:16:05 percied timings for both hemispheres is
00:16:05 --> 00:16:08 written up at astronomyaily.io
00:16:08 --> 00:16:09 with sources.
00:16:09 --> 00:16:11 >> While you're there, sign up for the
00:16:11 --> 00:16:13 daily newsletter, leave us a review, and
00:16:13 --> 00:16:15 send us your Percied and Eclipse photos
00:16:15 --> 00:16:16 through the contact page. We love
00:16:16 --> 00:16:18 featuring them.
00:16:18 --> 00:16:21 >> We're at Astronomy Daily Pod everywhere.
00:16:21 --> 00:16:22 I'm Anna
00:16:22 --> 00:16:24 >> and I'm Avery. Whether the skies are
00:16:24 --> 00:16:27 dark for meteors or the sun goes out for
00:16:27 --> 00:16:29 2 minutes over Iceland.
00:16:29 --> 00:16:32 >> We hope yours are clear until tomorrow.
00:16:32 --> 00:16:39 >> Clear skies. [music]
00:16:39 --> 00:16:44 [music]
00:16:44 --> 00:16:52 Stories told.
00:16:52 --> 00:16:54 [singing]