Hello, Perseids
I’ve been lax in posting my stargazing adventures lately, but this is one I really can’t just keep to myself—the Perseids of 2010. Here are more details:
I am going to be out there wishing on every one I see, and it looks as if I might get quite a few wishes!
A New Comet
There’s a new Comet McNaught in town (well, in the sky, actually) and it might actually be visible to the naked eye. (Comets can be unreliable, so no one knows for sure.) Look for it low in the northeastern sky before dawn, in the constellation Perseus. This coming weekend should be a good time to check it out, because there’ll be a new moon on the 12th. More info on Comet McNaught, pictures and star charts here at Universe Today.
An Astronomical Opportunity
Not many people have seen the planet Mercury. It’s easy to find Venus and Mars and Jupiter and even Saturn, but Mercury’s small and close to the sun and elusive. According to Renaissance gossip (and I do love Renaissance gossip) Copernicus himself never saw Mercury.
However! Now’s your chance! For the next couple of weeks Mercury and Venus will appear unusually close together (they’re actually on opposite sides of the sun, but stargazing is tricksy like that). Because Venus is one of the brightest objects in the night sky you can use it as a marker to help you find Mercury. Just look in the lower western sky about an hour after sunset. The brightest star you see? That will be Venus. Look down and to the right for Mercury. Have a pair of binoculars or a small telescope? Even better. They’ll appear closest together on April 3rd and 4th, and the conjunction will continue through about April 10th.
Why bother? Well, Mercury, the planet of communication, is going into retrograde again around the middle of April. Communication snafus, here we come. So at least this time we can look Mercury straight in the eye and say, “Not with my queries/submissions/revisions, you don’t.”
The Leonids are Coming!
The Leonid meteor shower has produced some of the most spectacular meteor displays in history; in fact, the Leonid display of November 1833 was so brilliant it produced the science of meteor astronomy (no pun intended) overnight.
The Leonids generally begin on November 13th and end on November 21st, with the largest numbers of observable meteors generally streaking across the sky during the night of November 17th/18th. This year the new moon falls on the 16th so there will be virtually no moonlight to impede viewing.
Bundle up and plan your Leonid-viewing party now! You can find everything you ever wanted to know (and more) about the Leonids at meteorshowersonline.com.
Chiaroscuro
I haven’t posted a beagle picture for a while, so here’s one from this morning: Boudin, sleeping peacefully in front of the back door, striped by the morning sun. He’s lying in one of his favorite spots, the space created by the three legs of my telescope tripod. Boo, the stargazing beagle! What next?
The Skies of August
5-6 August: The August full moon is the Sturgeon Moon, so called because the mighty sturgeon, which lurks in the Great Lakes and other large bodies of water, is supposedly most easily caught this month. Fish for dinner, to celebrate!
11-12 August: The Perseid Meteor Shower reaches its peak. A great night to lie out in the back yard and wish on each meteor streak. The meteors are called Perseids because their radiant, the point they appear to come from, lies in the constellation Perseus—look to the east-northeast between midnight and dawn.
All month: the Summer Triangle. If you look straight overhead, you’ll see an almost perfect triangle of bright stars, with the Milky Way sweeping through it from the northeast to the southwest. The brightest of the triangle is Vega, brilliant white, in the constellation Lyra, the lyre. To the left of Vega as you look up is the white supergiant Deneb, marking the tail of Cygnus, the swan. Looking down toward the horizon is the white dwarf Altair, the heart of Aquila, the eagle.
For a star map of the Summer Triangle’s stars and their associated constellations, go here.
The Second Duchess
Read the First Chapter
The Second Duchess is available on iBookstore!
