## Transcript: Deep Sage Nine StarCast (May 10, 2026)


**Jay Shaffer**
Welcome back to the StarCast for the week of May 10th, 2026. I'm your host, Jay Shaffer, and with me is my co-host, Mike Lewinski.  Howdy, Mike.

**Mike Lewinski**
Good morning, Jay.

**Jay Shaffer**
So, Mike, what's our space weather looking like over the next couple of days? 

**Mike Lewinski**
Well, Jay, just about 2 hours ago, sunspot 4436 erupted and produced an M 5.7 class solar flare. It did hurl a CME into space, but we don't know yet if the Earth is in the line of fire. We're also keeping a close eye on sunspot 4432, which is growing rapidly and may produce M-class flares as well. On top of all of that, we have a hole in the sun that is streaming solar wind at the Earth. Even if it weren't for that CME today, we're still expecting to see geomagnetic storms late this week, probably Thursday, Friday. So NOAA currently gives us a 40% chance of Class M flares and a 10% chance of Class X flares over the next 48 hours. Our geomagnetic storm forecast is putting a 20% chance of active conditions, which is the lowest level here at mid latitudes for the next couple of days, and up at high latitudes, there's a 30% chance of severe geomagnetic conditions. We're definitely keeping an eye to the north.  What's happening in the night sky this week, Jay?

**Jay Shaffer**
Yeah. On the sun weather, I've seen the headline that things were quieting down, but it actually sounds like things perked up. So that's heartening. This week is the new supermoon. The actual moment of the new moon will fall on 20:01 UTC on May 16th, 2026. In fact, this is the second of five new supermoons in a row. So we're going to get a bunch over the next couple months. This one will be 222,819 miles away, or 358,594 kilometers away. Compare that with the average moon distance of 238,900 miles.  It is a little bit closer. New moons rise and set with the sun.  Nights around the new moon are perfect for stargazing. The nights between the waning crescent moon and the last quarter moon, and the waxing crescent moon before the first quarter moon, are sometimes called the Golden Nights or the best nights for astronomy. We'll still got Jupiter in the evening sky after dusk, and if you're an early riser, you can catch Mars and Saturn just before dawn this week.  So, Mike, what do we got for us in space news?

**Mike Lewinski**
First up, the James Webb Space Telescope has directly studied the surface of an exoplanet for the first time. This planet is designated LHS 3844 b. I was curious how they get that designation, so I dove into how it was named. LHS stands for the Luyten Half-Second Catalog. It's a catalog of about 4,000 stars with proper motion greater than a half second per year. 3844 is the order in which the host star was cataloged. The letter b is the first planet discovered. If they discover another, it's c, then d. It makes sense that it's in order of discovery and not orbital position. The JWST used the mid-infrared instrument, MIRI, and astronomers at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy made these measurements. This planet is approximately 30% larger than Earth and about 48.5 light years away. It is tidally locked and completes its orbit every 11 hours. One side permanently faces the star, and one side faces deep space. Separating the light from the host star was only possible thanks to the amazing sensitivity of the Webb's instruments. They found the average surface temperature is approximately 725 degrees Celsius, or 1,340 degrees Fahrenheit. It's a fairly rocky planet, comparing it to Mercury as the nearest analog in our solar system. This is a first; the start of studying the surface of planets outside of our solar system. 

**Jay Shaffer**
Was the direct observation during the transit of that star or how was it imaged? 

**Mike Lewinski**
Well, it is using the mid-infrared range. The spectrum of the hot day side contrasted with the host star shows magnesium and iron-rich mantle rock, as well as some basalt and silica crust. They had to do some high-end math to derive the brightness contrast. 

**Jay Shaffer**
Spectroscopy is how we determine what elements are present when we image these things, correct? 

**Mike Lewinski**
Yeah, spectroscopy. It's definitely a big part of our astronomical processes. Our other big story this week is the release of the Pentagon UFO Files Tranche No. 1. They pulled back the curtain on a large cache of UAP files through a new public portal called Pursue. This rollout includes 162 records, ranging from declassified FBI interviews to transcripts from early space exploration. Among the highlights are archival materials from the Gemini and Apollo missions, including a 1965 report from astronaut Frank Borman about a bogey accompanied by hundreds of small particles, and a 1972 photo from Apollo 17 showing a curious triangular formation of lights. Seeing the original NASA transcripts and government memos adds a new layer of legitimacy. The volume of data suggests a major shift towards transparency. We'll include a link to a video where Seth Shostak shares his insight.  What do you think, Jay?

**Jay Shaffer**
Being pretty skeptical, unknown phenomena don't necessarily mean extraterrestrial technology. Science would say we can't prove they are not visitors from another dimension or extraterrestrial life, but that is not to say that they are. 

**Mike Lewinski**
Yeah, I'm right there with you. We have our unique perspective having thousands of hours of night sky time-lapse video. There is nothing in my captures that made me say, oh, wow, that might be alien craft. It's indistinguishable from the thousands of man-made satellites. If I saw one suddenly do a 90-degree turn, I would get pretty excited. 

**Jay Shaffer**
It would be defying the laws of physics as we know it. 

**Mike Lewinski**
I've been doing this since 2011. The more days go by that I don't see anything in an area reputed to be a UFO sighting hotbed, the more skeptical I become. I want to be wrong, I want to believe, but it's getting harder every day. 

**Jay Shaffer**
Asimov stated the universe is stranger than we can possibly imagine. I'm absolutely convinced there are phenomena we don't understand and can't explain with traditional methods right now. But I thought this week we would discuss something a little less speculative. I call this week the "season opener" because it's starting to get warm enough at night for astronomy. We're in that new moon period we call the Golden Nights. We schedule our star parties around those best nights for viewing.  Last night was our first good Saturday. Next week is still good on May 16th. Toward May 23rd and 30th, we're toward a bright moon. Early June is a golden period. August will be great for viewing, specifically the 1st, 8th, 15th, and 29th. The first two weeks in September are good, and the first two weekends of October. The period between the last quarter Moon and the new moon, the waning crescent, is the optimum period because there's no moon early in the evening. I like to get out in the early evening, so that's the perfect time. 

**Mike Lewinski**
I'm going to disagree there. I think the early waxing moon, setting in the early evening, is my favorite time. Last year we had a really nice view of the setting crescent moon with Venus also a crescent. The first four days after the new moon are almost the sweet spot. 

**Jay Shaffer**
Yes, that waxing crescent moon is when we get the best opportunity for earthshine on the moon's darker side. 

**Mike Lewinski**
I really love it. I'm going to rant for a second. I really hate daylight savings time. It messes with my moon calculations. During standard time, the new moon rises at sunrise and the full moon rises at sunset. At the first quarter moon, we expect to see setting at midnight, and the last quarter moon we expect to see rising at midnight. Once we're in daylight savings time, it's off. 

**Jay Shaffer**
I'm a standard time fan as well because that's the real time. 

**Mike Lewinski**
We're in a sweet spot right now. It's warm enough at night and we're early enough that we're not hitting the really short period of the solstice. Complete darkness is only about five or six hours. These next couple of weeks give us some of our best views of the Milky Way core of the year. One of my goals is to use my Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer tracker to follow that core as it rises until dawn. I'll be trying that the next three nights. Milky Way core with a blue tint sky from the waning crescent is some of my favorite wide-field experience. 

**Jay Shaffer**
My time lapse capture last night was exactly 8 hours, from 9 PM to 5 AM. 

**Mike Lewinski**
I like this window where I don't need to make exposure adjustments for the moon. Usually, I'm dropping my ISO when the moon rises or raising it when the moon sets. That means I'm getting up at 3 o'clock in the morning. I appreciate the window where I can do a full night time lapse without having to rouse myself. 

**Jay Shaffer**
Anytime when the moon is beyond the first quarter, I'm usually aiming north so the moon doesn't appear in my frame. 

**Mike Lewinski**
My big goal this summer is capturing some red sprites. I've captured them in the past, but it was incidental. I want to track storms from Raton to the Panhandle of Oklahoma. When there is a sprite-producing storm, I can switch to a telephoto lens and try and get some nicer photos. 

**Jay Shaffer**
Paul Smith captures a lot of those sprite images. My understanding is he shoots video and extracts frames.  So we're going to wrap this up. We haven't had a whole lot of feedback from our listeners or showing a whole lot of subscribers. We're debating pulling the plug. Next week will probably be our last unless we get an overwhelming response. It's been such an enjoyable collaboration. 

**Mike Lewinski**
I feel the same way, Jay. It really has been well worth it. 

**Jay Shaffer**
Next week we'll discuss atmospheric phenomena we've discovered through time-lapse photography, like Airglow, Gravity waves, and STEVE. We want to thank our listeners for tuning in. Keep up with Mike at wildernessvagabonds.com and my astronomy stuff at skylapser.com. Check out Mike Lewinski's time lapses on YouTube. From the Deep Sage 9 Observatory, this is Jay Shaffer and wishing you all clear skies. 

**Mike Lewinski**
Mike Lewinski.