The Night Sky: Perfect timing for Perseid meteor shower peak
by Dee Sharples –
Moonless night on August 13th offers spectacular viewing opportunity
Many people say that the Perseid meteor shower is the best meteor shower of the year, partly because it comes during the summer months when observing outside is more comfortable. The peak of the meteor shower occurs in the very early morning hours of August 13th, perfectly timed this year as there won’t be any moonlight to brighten the sky and interfere with your observing.
No special equipment is needed to view a meteor shower – only your eyes, and patience. I’ve found that the time between 3:00-5:00 AM works for me. Find an area with an expanse of open sky away from lights, make yourself comfortable in a lawn chair and plan to stay outside for at least 30 minutes. After 10 minutes you eyes will have adapted sufficiently to the dark. Now let your eyes casually wander the sky in all directions and you’re sure to spot some meteors.
Although you will be able to see a few Perseid meteors any night during its active period of July 17 to August 24, your best opportunity is on August 13th. At the peak observers can expect to see about 110 meteors per hour. Meteors may streak across the dark sky in any direction, but they will appear to come from the constellation Perseus which will be rising in the northeast around midnight.
The meteors originate from Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle which passes through our solar system every 133 years in its long orbit. As it approaches the Sun, the heat causes it to shed dust and debris which gathers like a cloud in space which the Earth passes through every August. When this dust and debris enters our atmosphere, it burns up and produces a meteor or what some people call a “shooting star”. In 1992, Comet Swift-Tuttle once again passed close to our Sun after its long journey and will return again in 2125.
The comet was discovered independently in 1862 by two astronomers – Lewis Swift and Horace Tuttle. Interestingly, Lewis Swift moved to Rochester, NY in 1872 where he opened a hardware store. However, Swift still continued pursuing his interest in astronomy and searching for new comets and went on to discover several others. This caught the attention of a wealthy Rochester businessman and philanthropist by the name of Hulbert Harrington Warner who then built an observatory at the corner of East Avenue and Arnold Park in the city. The Warner Observatory completed in 1883 cost almost $100,000 and Lewis Swift, who had made the decision to leave Rochester, was convinced to stay and become its administrator. Swift finally did move to California in 1894 and is credited with discovering a total of 13 comets in his lifetime.
A pretty sight in the west-southwest comes on August 14th when the planets Venus and Jupiter and a crescent Moon meet up in the darkening sky about 45 minutes after the sun sets. Venus is brilliant at magnitude -4.4 with Jupiter dimmer at magnitude -2.0. Look for the red giant star Arcturus shining with a distinctly reddish hue about 30 degrees (3 fist widths) above the Moon.
Be sure to look for the summer Milky Way around 10:00 PM after it’s fully dark. See if you can spot a wispy cloud-like band of faint light starting in the northeastern sky, passing overhead, and then down to the southern horizon. This is the Milky Way. The faint glow you see comes from the light of countless stars that make up the spiral arms of our Milky Way galaxy. The Sun is but one star among the billions that make up this galaxy in which we live. According to NASA, the Hubble telescope has revealed there is an estimated 100 billion galaxies in the universe, and this number is likely to increase as our telescope technology improves in the future.
Truly we live in an amazing universe!
Dee Sharples is an amateur astronomer who enjoys observing planets, star clusters and the Moon through her telescope. She is a member of ASRAS (Astronomy Section of the Rochester Academy of Science) and records “Dee’s Sky This Month”, describing what can be seen in the sky, on the ASRAS website, rochesterastronomy.org. Watch for her monthly Owl feature to learn more about the night sky.