#81 - March 2019 Part 1

The Discussion: A worthless victory for the Welsh, Earthling
slave John on the BBC’s Sky at Night, Jen’s preparations for A
Pint of Science, imaging the sun with a beer can and emails about
timestamping & sibilance.


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


Modelling of the meteor strikes on the moon during the
eclipse

Does the moon get bombarded by a meteor shower every 19
years?

The brightest gravitationally lensed object ever seen

Conditions closer to habitable seen around a white dwarf star

Did the Apollo astronauts even leave the Earth’s atmosphere



Main news story: 1) Due to modern data processing techniques
Hubble discovers a new moon around Neptune.


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


Ralph: The Galilean Moons, magnitude 8 asteroid Pallas and
Messier 67 in Cancer


Jeni: a quadruple planetary Conjunction, Mars and the vernal
equinox.


Paul: Mercury visible at the beginning of the month at sunset and
the galaxies in Ursa Major.


Main Deep Sky Object: Messier 44, The Beehive Cluster.


Q&A: Listeners’ questions via email, Facebook & Twitter
take us on a journey into the astronomy issues that have always
plagued our understanding or stretched our credulity. This month
we take a look at the bewildering array of theories for one of
the greatest spectacles in the night sky:


Will we get any advance warning of Betelgeuse going supernova?
Peter Coates, UK.