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After a little break (of 25 years or so) Bob King is celebrating his retirement with a return to The North 103.3's airwaves!After almost 40 years with the Duluth News Tribune, Bob is now retired. But scratch a print guy and you'll find a radio guy; King and then-UMD Planetarium Director Glen Langhorst hosted Startalk on KUMD for several years in the early '90s.Listen for Astro Bob every other Tuesday at 8am on Northland Morning.

Astro Bob's Backyard Astronomy: Night Clouds and Season Celebration

Noctilucent clouds reflected on a treelined lake
Geoffrey Maillard [via Flickr]

In the coming weeks, there are several things to keep an eye out for in the night sky, including the full Strawberry Moon low in the southern sky, Regulus in conjunction with Mars, and some rather unique clouds.

Noctilucent clouds exist high in Earth's atmosphere, some 50 miles above the surface - almost in outer space. These clouds form around this time of the year as it is when that extremely high part of our atmosphere in the northern reaches of the northern hemisphere becomes cold. That temperature when mixed with moisture and some meteor dust creates sparkling blue ribbons an hour or two after sundown.

And the clock is ticking ever-steadily toward summer. The entire planet will mark the change of the season (onward to winter in the south) at 9:42pm CT on June 20th - the point at which the sun will be furthest from the Earth.

You can hear Astro Bob's Backyard Astronomy every other Tuesday at 8:20am on Northland Morning.

Luke Moravec is the host for Northland Morning on The North 103.3. He’s also a local actor, musician and writer. He loves puzzles, riddles and fun mysteries.
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