STAR GAZER
THE INTERNATIONAL EDITION
Lorain County JVS NASA CORE / 15181 Route 58 South / 440/775-1400
/ FAX 440/775-1460 / nasaco@leeca.org / http://core.nasa.gov
Horkheimer: Greetings, greetings fellow star gazers. And please
don't miss this year's annual Perseid meteor shower because conditions
will be ideal for when it reaches its peak from 2 a.m. to dawn
next Thursday morning August 12th. Allow me to elucidate.
O.K., we've got our skies set up for 2 a.m. your local time anywhere in the U.S. And Canada facing northeast where if you're far away from bright city lights you'll see our old friends, the Pleiades, the Seven Sisters. And just to their left the rather dim constellation Perseus, named after the Greek hero which is where the Perseid meteor shower gets its name because all the meteors appear to originate from Perseus. The reason conditions are ideal for this year's meteor shower is because there will be no bright moon light to wipe out the fainter meteors. And to see them you don't need anything but your trusty old naked eye. All you have to do is take a lawn chair or a blanket outside around 2 a.m., lay back with your toes pointed toward Perseus and then watch. And if you're far enough away from city lights you may see 40 to 60 meteors per hour; most very faint but a few very bright.
Don't look directly at Perseus, because the meteors will appear all around the sky. And as time goes by Perseus will slowly rise and you should see even more meteors toward dawn. Plus as an extra treat this year about an hour or so before sunrise you will see an exquisite pairing of the brightest planet of them all, Venus and a slender waning crescent Moon whose light won't be enough to really interfere with the meteors.
Now although meteors look like shooting stars nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact meteors are simply tiny specks of comet debris slamming into our Earth's atmosphere. You see every time a comet visits our Sun it sheds tons of debris in its wake like sand or flour being thrown off the back of a boat. And eventually this debris gets spread out all along the comets path, its orbit. And whenever our Earth plows directly into any path of comet litter these tiny pieces of debris slam into our Earth's atmosphere. And as they plunge through the atmosphere traveling many miles per second they cause the atmospheric gasses surrounding them to heat up and glow making streaks of light. And we call these streaks of light meteors or incorrectly falling stars.
The Perseids are the debris of comet Swift-Tuttle, whose debris filled orbital path we plow through every August. And although the comet was discovered by 2 Americans named Swift and Tuttle during the Civil War in 1862, it wasn't until later that astronomers realized it was the source of the Perseid meteor shower which has been seen every August and recorded in history for over 2,000 years.
So get thee out next Thursday morning and each
time you see a Perseid streak across the sky remind yourself that
what you're actually seeing is a tiny piece of comet litter plunging
to its fiery death. Keep Looking Up
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Horkheimer: Next Thursday Aug.12 conditions will be ideal for this year's Perseid meteor shower. Every year during the first week of August our Earth plows into a great river of comet debris shed by Comet Swift-Tuttle. And when those tiny pieces of comet litter slam into our Earth's atmosphere at speeds of 40 miles per second they burn up and flash across the sky and create what we call the annual Perseid meteor shower, so called because they appear to come from the constellation Perseus. There's no bright moon to spoil it this year so get far away from city lights and watch it from the comfort of a lawn chair from 2 a.m. to dawn next Thursday and remember, its always more fun to meteor shower with a friend. Keep Looking Up!
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* This week's Sky At A Glance and
Planet Roundup from Sky & Telescope.
This week's Sky At A Glance displays current week only.
Starry Night Deluxe was used to produce this episode
of Star Gazer
Lorain County JVS NASA CORE / 15181 Route 58 South / 440/775-1400 / FAX 440/775-1460 / nasaco@leeca.org / http://core.nasa.gov
Horkheimer: Greetings, greetings fellow star gazers. Next week
we have something very easy to find in the night sky, our nearest
neighbor right next to the king of the planets and something not
so easy to find, the false dawn of Omar Khayyam. let me show you.
O.K., we've got our skies set up for just after it gets dark out next Tuesday evening the 17th facing due west where right above the horizon you will see an extremely thin sliver of a two day old crescent Moon parked right next to the king of the planets, Jupiter which is so huge 44 moons could be lined up side by side across its middle. Don't miss this because they'll be only four degrees away from each other, which is very close! If you do miss it however on the next night a slightly fatter crescent will be nine degrees to Jupiter's left, much farther away, but still making a very striking duo. So this is the easy part of what you can see next week.
To find the not so easy to see part means we have to turn around and face the opposite direction many hours later, just before dawn. O.K., we've got our skies set up for any morning next week facing east two hours before sunrise before the real dawn. I say real dawn because we're going to look for a false dawn, the one the Persian poet Omar Khayyam wrote about in his famous book of poetry "The Rubaiyat" almost a thousand years ago. It can only be seen every August and September if you're absolutely far away from city lights during the nights when there's no moon in pre dawn skies to hide its faint, faint glow. You'll know you have a good chance of seeing this rare phenomenon if the skies are dark enough to see the Milky Way because it's about the same brightness. It will look like a wedge or cone shaped patch of light and it will extend from the horizon almost half way up to the zenith, an ethereal, faintly glowing rounded pyramid of light, which would capture any poets imagination. And although this phenomenon remained a mystery to almost all of mankind, we now know its secret. Let me show you.
O.K., if we could go way out into space and
look down on our solar system with super human vision we would
notice a faint almost imperceptible vast cloud of cosmic dust
extending outward from the Sun in the plane of the orbits of Mercury,
Venus, Earth and slightly beyond. And while one would expect it
would be impossible to see this super faint cloud from Earth nevertheless
we now know that this is the false dawn Omar Khayyam wrote about
and which we now call the zodiacal light. And next week when you
see this false dawn, this ghostly cone of light, think of its
poetry throughout the ages but also remind yourself of what it
really is which is equally wonderful because we now know it is
simply predawn sunlight bouncing off of all those tiny particles
of dust in that enormous cosmic cloud that lies along the path
of the planets. See what an ancient poet saw. I'm Jack Horkheimer,
Keep Looking Up!
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Horkheimer: You can use the Moon to do some fancy planet hopping before midnight next week. This Sunday an exquisite slender sliver of a crescent Moon will be parked right next to Mars. And on Monday night a slightly bigger crescent will make a triangle with the planet Mercury and the brightest star of Leo the lion, Regulus. On Tuesday the Moon will be half way between Regulus and the king of the planets Jupiter. And on Wednesday an even fatter crescent will be parked up to Jupiter's left. The Moon and Mars on Sunday; the Moon, Mercury and Regulus on Monday; the Moon to the right of Jupiter on Tuesday and the Moon to Jupiter's left on Wednesday. Planet hopping with the Moon is always great fun. So Keep Looking Up!
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* This week's Sky At A Glance and
Planet Roundup from Sky & Telescope.Starry Night Deluxe was used to produce this episode
of Star GazerLorain County JVS NASA CORE / 15181 Route 58 South / 440/775-1400 / FAX 440/775-1460 / nasaco@leeca.org / http://core.nasa.gov
Horkheimer: Greetings, greetings fellow star gazers
and as most of you regular viewers know my favorite star of summer
Antares marks the heart of my favorite summer constellation Scorpius.
So it is with great excitement that I await Monday night August
23rd when a first quarter Moon will be parked less than one degree
away from it. Plus even though there is no constellation of a
kitty in the cosmos, nevertheless two cat's eyes can be seen staring
at us in the heavens on summer nights, let me show you.
O.K., we've got our skies set up for this Sunday August 22nd about 9 p.m. your local time and if you face due south you'll see a pattern of bright stars shaped like a giant fish hook or the capital letter j which is Scorpius the scorpion. And not only is the star Antares in the right place for a scorpion's heart but it's also the right color red. And the reason it's my favorite summer star is because it is the biggest star we can see in summer skies. In fact it is 700 times wider than our own almost one million mile wide Sun, so huge we could fit 350 million Suns inside it. Or if you like to think of it this way it is so gigantic that if we placed one edge of it where our Sun is it would reach out past the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, even beyond the orbit of Jupiter. Wow!
Now to the right of the three stars which mark the top of Scorpius you'll see an exquisite first quarter Moon and although the Moon visited Scorpius last month nevertheless it was not nearly as dramatic as what will happen next Monday. Indeed if you've never been able to find Antares before you'll have no trouble on Monday the 23rd because the Moon will be parked only 3/4 of one degree above Antares which is a sight that should knock your socks off. Don't miss this please.
Because if you do on the next night, Tuesday
the 24th, the Moon will be well past Antares and parked directly
above the two stars which mark Scopius' poisonous stinger. Their
Arabic names from left to right are Shaula and Lesath which both
mean the sting. In folk legend however they're not only the sting
but are also the two eyes of an ancient celestial cat, which stare
out at us every single summer. And although they don't appear
to be all that exceptional to the naked eye, if we look deeper
into these cat's eyes with a telescope we can see how truly wonderful
they are. Indeed, while our Sun is about a million miles wide
Shaula is almost twice as wide. But it is a much hotter star than
our yellow Sun and burns a fierce blue white, which makes it 1200
times brighter. Lesath is even more marvelous and appears dimmer
than Shaula only because it is so much farther away, because in
reality it is 7 times as wide as our Sun and 15,000 times brighter.
Some pussy cat eh folks? So find the cat's eyes in summer skies
and don't miss the Moon as it visits the heart of the scorpion.
Keep Looking Up!
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Horkheimer: On August 23rd a first quarter Moon will be parked right above the heart of the scorpion and two cosmic cat's eyes will stare at us. Face south at 9 p.m. And you'll see the Moon less than one degree away from Antares the red heart of Scorpius which looks like a giant fish hook. Antares is 700 times wider than our own Sun, so huge we could fit 350 million Suns inside it. On Tuesday the Moon will be above Shaula and Lesath, two stars which double as the stinger and two ancient cat's eyes. Shaula is twice as wide as our Sun and 1200 times brighter. Lesath is 7 times as wide but 15,000 times brighter. Some pussy cat eh folks? Keep Looking Up!
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* This week's Sky At A Glance and
Planet Roundup from Sky & Telescope.Starry Night Deluxe was used to produce this episode
of Star GazerLorain County JVS NASA CORE / 15181 Route 58 South / 440/775-1400 / FAX 440/775-1460 / nasaco@leeca.org / http://core.nasa.gov
Horkheimer: Greetings, greetings fellow star gazers.
And if you want to see something really nifty then mark August
31st and September 1st on your calendar as two mornings you'll
want to get up an hour before sunrise to see a super close meeting
between planet number 2, the brightest planet of them all, Venus
and planet number 6, the most beautiful planet of them all and
the one that we're visiting right now with our Cassini spacecraft,
Saturn. Let me show you.
O.K., let's go back in time a bit to Sunday morning Aug. 1st an hour before sunrise facing east where the brightest stars you would have seen would have been those of Orion the hunter, Aldebraran the eye of Taurus the bull, Castor and Pollux the two brightest stars of the Gemini twins and Capella the brightest star of Auriga the charioteer. And nestled between these wonderfully bright stars, the brightest planet of them all, planet number 2 from the sun, 8,000 mile wide Venus, our so-called sister planet because it is the same size as our Earth and huddled close to the horizon, much dimmer but absolutely spectacular through a small telescope, the 75,000 mile wide wonderful ring world Saturn.
Now on August 1st Saturn and Venus were 25 degrees apart from each other or if you like to think of it this way since a full moon is 1/2 a degree wide we could have fit 50 full moons between Saturn and Venus. But the heavens are very dynamic because everything in the cosmos is moving including our Earth. So if you had gone out a week later on August 8th you would have seen that Saturn and Venus had moved closer and were only 20 degrees apart or 40 full moons distant from one another. And if you had been paying close attention you would have also noticed that they had moved relative to the bright stars, especially Orion. One week later on August 15th they had moved 5 degrees closer only 15 degrees apart or 30 full moon widths distant. And then things really began to speed up because by last Sunday the 22nd they were only 9 degrees or 18 full moons apart, Venus noticeably much farther away from Orion.
But this week is the week the action really
begins because in just 7 days by this Sunday the 29th Venus and
Saturn will be only 3 degrees or 6 full moons apart and getting
ready to close in. In fact, they'll reach their absolute closest
and be a visually stunning mere 2 degrees apart on Tuesday morning
August 31st, and Wednesday morning September 1st. Astronomers
call this meeting of 2 planets a conjunction, but it's all an
optical illusion created by our vantage point on planet Earth
as we and all the planets constantly move in our orbits about
the Sun. In fact, on the morning of the 31st Venus will be only
76 million miles away while Saturn will be a whopping 905 million
miles away. And if you want to see how things really change quickly
in the cosmos, on September 1st Saturn will be a million miles
closer. So get thee out on the 31st and 1st for a super close
meeting of two of the loveliest planets around. Keep Looking Up!
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Horkheimer: On August 31st and September 1st
planet #2 will have a super close meeting with planet #6. Back
on August 1st you could see them among the brightest stars of
winter. 8,000 mile wide Venus and 75,000 mile wide Saturn. But
they were very far apart, 25 degrees. A week later they were only
20 degrees apart and on August 15th, 15 degrees apart. Last Sunday
they were only 9 degrees apart but ta da! next Tuesday and Wednesday
they will be a mere 2 degrees apart which is super close. But
even though they'll look close in fact Venus will be 76 million
miles away while Saturn will be a whopping 905 million miles away.
What a way to end August and begin September. Keep Looking Up!
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* This week's Sky At A Glance and
Planet Roundup from Sky & Telescope.
This week's Sky At A Glance displays current week only
Starry Night Deluxe was used to produce this episode
of Star Gazer
Lorain County JVS NASA CORE / 15181 Route 58 South / 440/775-1400 / FAX 440/775-1460 / nasaco@leeca.org / http://core.nasa.gov
Horkheimer: Greetings, greetings fellow star gazers and if you
do any planet gazing for the entire month I suggest you do it
Friday morning September 10th just before dawn because not only
will Venus, Saturn and the Moon form an exquisite triangle but
the planet Mercury will bump into the heart star of Leo the Lion
in what astronomers call a super close conjunction. Let me show
you.
O.K., we've got our skies set up for September 10th just before dawn facing due east where you'll see an absolutely breathtaking slender sliver of a 26 day old Moon making an exquisite triangle with the brightest planet of them all, planet #2 Venus and the prettiest planet of them all telescopically, planet #6 Saturn. And just to throw in a couple of cosmic goodies just above them will be the two brightest stars of the Gemini twins, Castor and Pollux. Please don't miss this sight because cosmic triangles are always really nifty.
But keep in mind that even though the Moon and Venus and Saturn will look close together they're not. In fact our 2,000 mile wide Moon will be 250 thousand miles away on the 10th, 8,000 mile wide Venus will be 83 million miles away and 75,000 mile wide Saturn will be a whopping 893 million miles away! It's all an illusion. But if you're not turned on by triangles perhaps I can interest you in a super close conjunction just below the cosmic triangle. The brighter object of the two will be planet #1 from the sun Mercury. And only 1/4 of a degree above it which is less than half the width of a full Moon will be the brightest star of Leo the Lion, the blue star Regulus which you may want to compare with the pink color of Mercury. And once again this whoppingly close visual meeting is also an illusion because on the 10th tiny 3,000 mile Mercury will be only 89 million miles away while 5 million mile wide Regulus will be 5 1/2 million times farther away, 85 light years beyond! Don't miss this please.
And if you want to add even more fun to your
viewing begin your watch one day earlier, Thursday morning the
9th when a slender sliver of a 25 day old Moon will be parked
above Saturn just to the right of Castor and Pollux and if you
look closely at Mercury and Regulus you will see that they are
farther apart, 3/4 degrees apart and getting ready to close in
the next morning on the 10th. Then just to show you how rapidly
things change in the heavens on Saturday morning September 11th
an even skinnier Moon will be well below Venus, and Mercury and
Regulus will be much farther apart 1 and 1/2 degrees. And by Sunday
they'll be a whopping 3 degrees apart. So there you have it. A
fabulous cosmic triangle, and a super close conjunction on the
10th! And an opportunity to watch the Moon as it gets skinnier
and lower in the heavens each day as Regulus and Mercury approach,
meet and then distance them selves from each other. I'm Jack Horkheimer,
Keep Looking Up!
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Horkheimer: On September 10th Venus, Saturn
and the Moon will form a super triangle and Mercury will bump
into the heart star of Leo the lion. Just before dawn face east
and you'll see a triangle made of an extremely slender crescent
Moon, planet #2 Venus and planet #6 Saturn with Gemini's Castor
and Pollux looking on. But although they'll look close in fact
our 2,000 mile wide Moon will be 250,000 miles away, 8,000 mile
wide Venus will be 83 million miles away and 75,000 mile wide
Saturn will be a whopping 893 million miles away. Directly below
them pink Mercury will have a super close meeting with Regulus
the blue heart star of Leo, so close less than half a full Moon
could fit between them. Wow! Keep Looking Up!
How did you like this episode?
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* This week's Sky At A Glance and
Planet Roundup from Sky & Telescope.
This week's Sky At A Glance displays current week only
Starry Night Deluxe was used to produce this episode
of Star Gazer
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