“Star party views Perseid meteor shower - Madras Pioneer Newspaper” plus 2 more |
- Star party views Perseid meteor shower - Madras Pioneer Newspaper
- August skywatch: Meteor shower, Summer Triangle - AZCentral.com
- The Almanac - August 3 - Post Chronicle
| Star party views Perseid meteor shower - Madras Pioneer Newspaper Posted: 04 Aug 2010 11:29 AM PDT August 04, 2010 By Larry Mahon Agate Ridge Observatory Last month, Venus, Mars and Saturn formed a line in the Western sky. As August begins, Mars has just passed Saturn and only 2 degrees separates these two planets. Venus is traveling a little faster than Mars and is approaching this pairing. On Aug. 7, this grouping of three planets will be within a circle only 4.8 degrees in diameter and thus becomes a "planetary trio." Mars continues to pull away from Saturn, and Venus passes Saturn on Aug. 8. It will take until Aug. 20, before Venus finally catches up to Mars and passes only 2 degrees below it as they set in the West at about 9:30 p.m. Jupiter and Uranus rise at about the time that Saturn sets this month -- around 10:30 p.m., at the beginning of the month, and around 8:30 p.m. by month's end. Jupiter is moving westward among the stars and is brightening to magnitude -2.9, and telescopes show its appearance growing to 49 seconds of arc as it approches opposition in September. Meteor shower Every August we are treated to the Perseid Meteor Shower. These meteors are derived from dust grains ejected over many millennia by the comet Swift-Tuttle. These grains burn up as they hit the earth's atmosphere at 37 miles per second, creating the streaks of light we see. Every three years this meteor shower occurs on moonless nights. The last time the Perseids came during a run of moonless nights was in 2007. So, in 2010 we will have dark skies for this years shower. The predictions for North America indicate that the maximum hourly meteor counting rate, from 60 to 100 per hour, should happen (starting around 11 p.m) Thursday Aug. 12, and last until first light on Friday morning Aug. 13, when the radiant is at its highest. The best place to watch is anywhere the sky is darkest, usually straight up. Don't get too comfortable in your lounge chair or sleeping bag or you will have a hard time staying awake. Star Party We will be able to see many of the meteors at the public star party the MAC Astronomy Club is holding on the top of Round Butte on the night of Friday, Aug. 13. If you are interested in making a reportable scientific count, there is more information at SkyandTelescope.com/meteors. Don't forget that the Perseid shower lasts for more than one night! Rates are about a half to a quarter the peak rate for one or two nights before and after the maximum. Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| August skywatch: Meteor shower, Summer Triangle - AZCentral.com Posted: 03 Aug 2010 04:31 PM PDT by John Stanley - Aug. 3, 2010 03:28 PM The sultry skies of August are full of celestial delights, ranging from conspicuous constellations to one of the year's most reliable meteor showers. This year, there's also a striking array of planets in the western sky. One of the most prominent features of the August sky is the aptly-named Summer Triangle - technically an asterism, rather than a constellation - formed by the stars Vega, Altair and Deneb. Each is the brightest star in its own constellation: Lyra, Aquila and Cygnus, respectively. It's easy to find the Summer Triangle. Just go outside about an hour or two after sunset and look up. Vega is the bright star hanging pretty nearly overhead. The almost equally bright star about 35 degrees to the south-southeast is Altair, and the bright (but not quite as bright as Vega and Altair) star about 20 degrees northeast of Vega is Deneb. Astronomers say Deneb is about 1,700 light-years away. In contrast, Vega is only 25 light-years distant, and Altair is a mere 17 light-years away, practically a next-door neighbor. MeteorsThe annual Perseid meteor shower should peak this year early in the evening of Aug. 12. Perseids may appear in any part of the sky, but you'll probably see more if you look to the northeast. Observers in dark locations may spot 50 or 60 meteors an hour, but from a typical suburban backyard you may not see more than a dozen or so. Perseids tend to be faster and brighter than most meteors and are noted for occasionally exploding into brilliant, short-lived fireballs. Although you might spot some Perseids any time during the nights of Aug. 11/12 and 12/13, you'll probably see the most between 2 a.m. and dawn. PlanetsMercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn are spread across the western sky during August. Venus is by far the most prominent, shining brightly above the western horizon just after sunset. Look for Mercury far to the right of Venus and very low in the west-northwest. Don't wait too long, though, as Mercury will drop from view by mid-month. Mars and Saturn are above and well to the left of Venus as August begins, but drift steadily to the right as the month progresses. By the end of August you'll find Mars slightly above and to the right of Venus; Saturn will be below and far to its right. MoonLook for the crescent moon below Venus on the evening of Aug. 12 and to its left the next night. Spaceflight anniversaryOn Aug. 12, 1977, astronauts Fred Haise, who survived the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission, and Charles Fullerton piloted the Space Shuttle prototype Enterprise on its first free-flight test. Released from the Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft at an altitude of 24,100 feet, the Enterprise took a little more than five minutes to glide down to a lakebed landing. That mission, along with four more atmospheric tests, cleared the way for the shuttle program's first flight into space in 1981. Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| The Almanac - August 3 - Post Chronicle Posted: 03 Aug 2010 04:35 AM PDT Today is Tuesday, Aug. 3, the 215th day of 2010 with 150 to follow. The moon is waning. The morning stars are Neptune, Uranus, Jupiter and Saturn. The evening stars are Mercury, Venus and Mars. Those born on this date are under the sign of Leo. They include Elisha Graves Otis, inventor of the modern elevator, in 1811; World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle and "Monkey Trial" defendant John Scopes, both in 1900; orchestra leader Ray Bloch in 1902; actor Dolores del Rio in 1905; band leader Les Elgart in 1917; authors P. D. James in 1920 (age 90) and Leon Uris in 1924; football Hall of Fame coach Marv Levy in 1925 (age 85); singer Tony Bennett in 1926 (age 84); football Hall of fame member Lance Alworth in 1940 (age 70); TV personality and lifestyle consultant Martha Stewart in 1941 (age 69); actors Martin Sheen in 1940 (age 70) and Jay North in 1951 (age 59); hockey Hall of Fame member Marcel Dionne in 1951 (age 59); football quarterback Tom Brady in 1977 (age 33); and actor Evangeline Lilly in1979 (age 31). On this date in history: In 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain for the New World with a convoy of three small ships -- the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria -- and fewer than 100 crewmen. In 1914, Germany declared war on France and invaded Belgium. The following day, Britain declared war on Germany and World War I was under way. In 1958, the U.S. nuclear submarine "Nautilus" crossed under the North Pole. In 1981, U.S. air traffic controllers went on strike. The strikers were fired within one week. In 1990, the prime ministers of East and West Germany agreed to move up unification to early fall and rescheduled all-German elections for Oct. 14. In 1997, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced he wouldn't honor agreements with the Palestine National Authority unless it cracked down on terrorism. In 1998, talks broke down between Iraqi officials and Richard Butler, the head of the U.N. team overseeing the dismantling of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. In 2004, the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor was opened to the public for the first time since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In 2005, in the first emergency repair conducted in space, astronauts fixed a potentially dangerous problem by removing two strips of protruding cloth from the underside of the space shuttle Discovery. Also in 2005, South Korea scientists reported the first successful cloning of a dog, considered one of the most difficult animals to copy. In 2006, U.S. Army Gen. John Abizaid, commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, told Congress that sectarian violence in Baghdad was "probably as bad as I've seen it" and predicted a possible civil war. Also in 2006, Ukrainian leaders reached a coalition agreement after President Viktor Yushchenko nominated his archrival as prime minister. In 2007, the U.S. Congress passed a bill allowing the National Security Agency to monitor e-mail and telephone communications between the United States and foreign countries without a court warrant if terrorism was believed to be involved. In 2008, more than 120 religious pilgrims were trampled to death and 40 more were injured during a stampede in northern India. Emergency workers said most of those killed were women and children caught in a panic caused by rumors of a landslide. Also in 2008, once exiled Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, whose works revealed the harshness of the Soviet penal system, died at the age of 89. The Nobel Prize-winning author of "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich," had been reported ill for years. And, 11 mountain climbers were killed when a large mass of ice breaks off and causes an avalanche on K2, the world's second-tallest mountain. It was the deadliest climbing accident on the northern Pakistan mountain since 1986. In 2009, a former Chicago rabbi who allegedly led an effort to obtain illegally $35 million in state and U.S. income tax refunds was arrested in Israel, U.S. officials said. Marvin Berkowitz was one of 10 people indicted. Also in 2009, Massachusetts is the most Democratic state in the nation, topping a field of 30 states and the District of Columbia, a Gallup Poll analysis indicated. The survey said only four states -- Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and Alaska -- could be considered solidly Republican. A thought for the day: it was Henry David Thoreau who said, "Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in milk." (c) UPI Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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