Salutations celestial sight seers!
I'm David Fuller, welcome to Eyes on the Sky; what's up this week?
Meteor showers are perhaps one of the BEST ways to share the night sky: No telescope
required -- in fact, a telescope isn't useful at all! - and all one needs is to look up
(and perhaps stay warm next to someone).
But that's it!
Nothing else!
How much easier does that get?
It doesn't.
And this year, the Perseid meteor shower is nicely timed with the Moon.
Our natural satellite should be set below the western horizon for most everyone by 10
oclock at night, and for many of us, astronomical twilight occurs around then anyway -- or perhaps
later.
So where to look?
Perseids emanate from the constellation Perseus, the mythological hero who decapitated the
Gorgon Medusa by watching her reflection in his shield to avoid being turned to stone.
He then married the princess Andromeda, who was the daughter of King Cepheus and Queen
Cassiopeia.
And mythological lore has it that Pegasus the Flying Horse was born from the headless
body of Medusa.
And what do you know?
All of these constellations can be seen in the northern / northeast / eastern sky after
dark.
Here's Perseus, with his bride Andromeda nearby, who is seemingly attached to Pegasus, and
the King and Queen are nearby just above the two younger characters.
The radiant for the Perseids -- that is, the point from which the meteors appear to come
from -- is located not far from the brightest star in Perseus, Mirfak.
But should you look there to see Perseid meteors?
Well...
NO.
Why not?
More on that in a moment.
Dark Sky Fact: Do you know about International Starry Night?
Beginning this year, the event occurs on August 10-th, coinciding with the Perseid Meteor
shower.
Go to starry dash night dot org and register YOUR event to encourage others to look up
at the night sky, and make positive changes with nighttime outdoor lighting.
The radiant may be the spot where meteors appear to come from, but that doesn't mean
that is where we will see them start or appear.
It simply means that we can trace their path back to that spot in the sky to identify it
as a Perseid.
Ideally, the best place to look, is about 45 degrees or so AWAY from the radiant.
Sit back in a comfortable chair, and gaze up in the region of Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Pegasus,
or even Cygnus or Ursa Major.
Meteors can appear most anywhere in the sky, but many will shoot across these areas.
With Perseids, the maximum is up to 90 meteors per hour -- which is only exceeded by the
cold-weather showers of the Quadrantids and the Geminids.
But will we actually SEE 90 meteors in an hour?
Well, not really.
20 to 60 meteors per hour may be more likely, depending on your local light pollution and
viewing conditions -- so, approximately one every minute or three.
But their appearance can be somewhat sporadic.
The thrill is waiting for them, and then seeing a really bright fireball pass overhead, brighter
than the stars, and leaving a beautiful trail of smoking debris behind it!
Not to worry -- the bits of sand and gravel that cause these aren't going to hit the ground
-- they are far too small to survive the friction of our atmosphere.
The best part of the Perseids is that they can be seen over several days.
Though peaking this year on August 12 in early evening for western Europe and early afternoon
for the United States, a fair number of Perseids can be seen any clear night between August
10-th and 14-th.
If possible, look after midnight, when the Earth "turns into" the stream of particles
that causes more meteors to flash across the sky.
For more tips on meteor watching, visit Eyes on the Sky dot com.
A meteoriod is a rock in space, a meteor is a rock in the atmosphere, and a meteorite
is what's left over if the rock hits the ground.
Along The Ecliptic: Venus and Saturn maintain their evening presence in the early evenings,
while Mars and Jupiter rule the pre-dawn skies as Mercury exits stage east by the weekend.
That's all for this week.
Keep your eyes on the sky and your outdoor lights aimed down, so we can all see, what's
up.
I'm David Fuller, wishing you clear and dark skies.