A large number of shooting stars line up along the Perseid stream. The maximum is between 9 and 13 August. Bright objects, so-called bolides or fireballs, are not uncommon. Most of the meteors can be expected on the morning of 12 August. As the most beautiful and rich stream of the year, the Perseids produce up to a hundred shooting stars per hour. The best time to watch is between 11 pm and 4 am.
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With an entry speed of 60 kilometers per second, the Perseids are quite fast objects. At this speed, the journey from Earth to the Moon took only 90 minutes. Most meteoroids evaporate in the Earth’s atmosphere. But there are exceptions, some hit the ground or fall into the ocean. It is very rare for a meteoroid to hit densely populated areas.
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This is not the only special celestial event of the month: The still almost full moon covers the planet Saturn. Our neighbor in space will pass in front of the ringed planet early in the morning on Wednesday, August 21, obscuring it for about an hour. The exact time depends on the location. The cosmic spectacle begins at 5:33 a.m. in Hamburg, 5:34 a.m. in Berlin, 5:31 a.m. in Düsseldorf, 5:30 a.m. in Leipzig and 5:33 a.m. in Munich. About an hour later, the Moon leaves the ringed planet again and Saturn appears on the moon’s western edge.
This mystery can be seen particularly impressively in binoculars when the rings and planetary field slowly disappear behind the edge of the Moon and reappear after an hour on the dark western edge of the Moon. Saturn in Aquarius gradually becomes an all-night planet in August. At the beginning of the month it rises around 10:30 p.m., and at the end of August it rises half an hour after sunset.
Venus appears in the evening sky, beginning its Evening Star period. It is the first star to be recognized as dusk falls. Already on the 4th, Venus moves northward from Regulus, the main star of Leo. A day later it encounters the waxing crescent. At the end of August it crosses the celestial equator in a southerly direction. Its demise will be at the end of the month at 9:46 p.m., just before 9:00 a.m.
Walking on Mars
The planet of the second quarter of the night is Mars. It passes through the constellation Taurus and passes five degrees north of its main star, Aldebaran, at the beginning of the month. In mid-August, reddish Mars moves north of the brighter, whiter Jupiter. Jupiter rules the second quarter of the night.
There is a nice view of the sky around three o’clock in the morning on the 28th: ​​the waning Moon joins Mars and Jupiter on the eastern horizon. Mercury overtook Earth on its inner orbit on the 19th. The nimble planet remains invisible in August. The Summer Triangle is now high in the south. Just above our heads you can see Vega in the constellation Lyra, 25 light years away. Next to Harp the Swan spreads its wings. It is marked by a large star cross, also known as the “Northern Cross.”
Its brightest star, Deneb, marks the other corner of the Summer Triangle. Deneb is the most distant of the bright first magnitude stars. It is measured to be 2,500 light years away. It is one of the so-called supergiants with a diameter about 200 times that of the Sun and a luminosity 50,000 times that of our Sun. Deneb is one of the largest and brightest stars in our galaxy.
The third star in the Summer Triangle is Atari, the main star of the eagle swooping down on its prey. At a distance of 17 light years, the Eagle Star is one of our Sun’s neighboring stars. The Big Dipper has descended to the northwest, while the celestial W, Cassiopeia, is moving to the northeast.
Even in August, the shimmering band of the summer Milky Way can only be seen far beyond the earthly light haze. This is why many people rarely or never see the delicate glowing band of thousands of twinkling stars.
the moonlight obstructs visibility
Even the moonlight hampers visibility. The new moon will be on August 4 at 1:13 pm. The full moon will be on the 19th at 8:26 pm in Aquarius. On the 9th the moon is 405,297 kilometers from Earth, while on the 21st it is only 360,196 kilometers from us.
The Sun travels along the descending branch of its annual path and approaches the celestial equator. At noon on the 10th it leaves Cancer and moves into Leo, and on the 22nd it passes its main star, the king star Regulus. At noon on the same day it enters Virgo. The Sun’s noon altitude decreases by only nine degrees, and the length of the day is reduced by about two hours at 50 degrees north.
(Mac)
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