Sky-Watching

by yaska77

Prepare to crane your necks as the Perseid display peaks mid-month. Considered one of the most reliable meteor showers, Perseid spotting is a great way to spend the Summer evenings (British Summer still more or less absent) and with sightings already being reported it’s a good chance to get kids interested by going out for a look as soon as it gets dark!

Another event of immense interest this month is the Mars landing of NASA’s latest rover named Opportunity. We live in exciting times.

So, with a little something listed below for everyone to enjoy, keep watching the skies!

Thursday 2nd August - Tonight’s Full Moon is also known as the Grain Moon, Sturgeon Moon and Lightning Moon

Sunday 5th into
Monday 6th August – NASA’s latest Mars rover (named Curiosity) from the Mars Science Laboratory mission is due to land on the Red Planet over night tonight. The car-sized, nuclear powered Curiosity has been designed to assess whether Mars ever had an environment able to support small life forms

Expected to land around 01:31 EDT (05:31 GMT 06:31 BST), you can watch build up to this event on NASA TV live from 03:00 GMT (Entry descent) following straight in to the landing itself (programme begins from 04:00 GMT)

Artist’s concept of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover, a mobile robot for investigating Mars’ past or present ability to sustain microbial life, which launched in November 2011 (click to enlarge) – Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

We’ll post a Live Player closer to the time

Thursday 9th August – Last Quarter Moon

Friday 10th August – The Moon is at Apogee today (the farthest away its orbit will take it this time around) at a distance of 404,125 km

Saturday 11th August – The annual Perseid Meteor Shower peaks this evening, with the best time for viewing (from the UK) between 23:00 GMT (00:00 BST) and 04:30 GMT (05:30 BST) on 12th August

Look halfway up the north east sky tonight and see how many Perseid meteors you can see! Guide above at 23:00 GMT/00:00 BST (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/Stellarium

This year there is a waning crescent Moon (24% lit) which shouldn’t interfere too badly, last year the peak of the Perseid shower coincided with a full Moon!

I caught this faint Perseid in a very moonlit sky last year. Hoping for better this year! (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

With a ZHR (Zenithal Hourly Rate) of anything up to 100 meteors per hour, now is a great time to get kids involved, as although the peak is late meteors can still be spotted from nightfall in the days leading to and following the shower’s peak. The radiant guide above will show the direction the meteors will come from, but they’ll be visible streaking away from the radiant’s centre

Wednesday 15th August - Venus is at it’s Greatest Western Elongation, meaning it is rising before the Sun in the early morning. Early risers with a flat Eastern horizon may get a good photo opportunity, as Jupiter, Venus, the thin waning crescent Moon and Mercury all align in the pre-dawn light (with Mercury rising around 03:15 GMT (04:15 BST)

Pretty things all in a row! Mercury, the Moon, Venus and Jupiter align before sunrise (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/Stellarium

Thursday 16th August - Mercury is at Greatest Western Elongation after Venus saw the same yesterday, if you’re lucky you might be able to get a photo as it sits near the waning crescent Moon just before sunrise

Friday 17th August – New Moon, which rises and sets with the Sun making tonight a good evening to observe deep sky objects

Thursday 23rd August – The Moon is at Perigee today at a distance of 369,730 km

Friday 24th August - First Quarter Moon, and Neptune is at Opposition in the constellation Aquarius

The Moon is a favoured target of astro imagers, and we’re no exception! Here is a recent daytime first quarter Moon (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Friday 31st August - Because tonight’s Full Moon is the second this month, it is also known as a Blue Moon…

We say “Once in a Blue Moon” to mean something is a rare occurrence, but in this case science has worked out that this saying actually means “Once every 2.72 years” (apparently)

Planets visible this month:

Mercury
Venus
Mars
Saturn
Jupiter
Uranus
Neptune

Remember, it can take your eyes up to 20 minutes to become properly dark adapted, and anything up to an hour for a telescope to reach ambient temperature outside (to ensure the best image), so give yourself plenty of time to get set up!

To make it easier to find this list of astronomical happenings you can also locate it in the “Monthly Guide” section in the menu bar to the right. Handy!

Guide images created with Stellarium

Archive:
Astronomy Events – July 2012
Astronomy Events – June 2012
Astronomy Events – May 2012

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