The astronomy news this week is the Perseid meteor shower, which peaks Wednesday evening, Aug 12. The Moon won’t be a factor, as it is almost exactly a New Moon, meaning it is close to the Sun from our vantage point. Therefore, we will have a dark background sky against which to see the meteors.
You will hopefully see a few more meteors than normal, and possibly even a spectacular fireball. You can start looking for meteors even tonight and for a few nights afterwards. Over the past couple nights, I caught two each night in about a half hour.
With the darker skies, you will also probably be able to see a few satellites crossing the sky – moving steadily and looking just like stars.
Remember to dress warmly as you won’t be active and will get colder more quickly. Set up a lounge chair or a blanket and face the widest stretch of sky you can see. Avoid any lights around you and give yourself at least 10 to 20 minutes for your eyes to adapt. Don’t use your phone unless it is for astronomy where you can set it to night mode – which is red – a colour that doesn’t affect you night vision.
This shower is called the Perseids, as it appears to originate in the constellation Perseus, which is in the northwest in the evening. We don’t see them start there, but only find them as they hit the atmosphere, which could be anywhere in the sky, but if you follow their track back, it will point back to Perseus.
You may see some other meteors in different directions. These are referred to as “sporadics” and aren’t part of the old comet. Dust and meteors are very common up there. As Earth orbits the Sun, its gravity continues to sweep up dust that is still floating in space from the original creation of our solar system and other events over the past few billion years.
As a reminder, what we’re seeing are bits of dust that have been left behind in the tail of comet Swift-Tuttle when it passed across Earth’s orbital path in the 1990’s. As we pass through these particles, mostly smaller than a grain of sand, they burn up with great intensity due to their speed through our atmosphere, giving us some quite impressive meteors, and occasionally even a very bright fire ball, which is a spectacularly intense meteor, sometimes bright enough to cast shadows. They are rare, so don’t expect to see one, but if do, don’t be surprised either.
The Planets in the evening
Venus is shining very brightly low in the southwest just after sunset. It sets around 10 p.m. On Sunday evening, Aug. 16, look for a crescent Moon just below Venus, and note that you can see the full disk of the Moon due to earthshine, which is sunlight reflected off Earth.
Saturn is visible later in the evening in the southeast. It is not very bright, but brighter than anything around it, so easy to identify. Above Saturn, you should be able to see the large square of the constellation Pegasus. On August 31 the Moon will be just above Saturn.
Jupiter and Mercury are barely visible in the very early morning, just before sunrise, A bit earlier than that you may see reddish Mars a bit above the eastern horizon.
Partial solar eclipse in eastern Canada
There will be a partial solar eclipse visible in eastern Canada around midday, however the Sun will only be 15% covered in Ontario and over 40% in the Maritimes. Please use eclipse glasses if you are planning to look at. Never look directly at the Sun with the naked eye and never look with binoculars.
Clear skies.
David
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