Moon, Perseids, Jupiter and Nunki tonight
4 comments Print Me Email to FriendTonight's Sky for Tuesday, Aug 12 2008
Moon, Perseid meteors, Jupiter and Nunki are all awesome celestial sights to look for tonight. The Perseids are best viewed after midnight tonight. The best place to look for them is opposite the moon, or wait until the moon has set – in the hours before dawn – to watch meteors. Just remember, the moon’s glow may prevent you from seeing some of the fainter meteors but a few really bright ones may be seen even in bright moonlight.
Look in south in the evening for the waxing gibbous moon. It will be in the top of a famous pattern of stars, known as the Teapot of Sagittarius.
Be sure to notice Nunki, second-brightest star in Sagittarius. If you put Nunki – which is also known as Sigman Sagittarii – at the same distance as our sun, it would be 630 times brighter.
Still, you might overlook Nunki while gazing toward a much-brighter object, Jupiter, the king of planets in our solar system. Jupiter is a great object to observe in binoculars. You may see its four largest moons – the Galilean satellites named for Galileo – Io, Ganymeade, Europa and Callisto. Steadily held binoculars – under clear dark skies – show them in a line strung out near the planet. It’s fun to see these four biggest and brightest of Jupiter’s 63 moons dance in their continuous orbit around the planet. Using his crude telescope, Galileo discovered these moons and suggested that their changing positions could be used to tell time at sea.
The moon is shining brightly and will be full in four more days. It is also great to look at in binoculars but since it is so much brighter than Jupiter and Nunki, it is best to explore the lunar surface last to save your night vision. Better yet, explore the moon with binoculars during earthly twilight when the contrast between the moon and night sky isn’t so great.
What time zone is your information written about, ie when you say it is best to see the meteor shower after midnight, what actual time do you mean re GMT. I realize that they are best seen when dark so this question is not really applicable to these sightings but what about when you refer to planeta and star sightings.
Thanks
Susan,
“After midnight” refers to local time. Most meteor showers are best viewed after midnight because the radiant or where the meteors originate is above the horizon.
Kelley
Did anyone get a good meteor show Tuesday morning? I occasionally checked between 2am and 4:30am mountain time and only saw a few short faint sparks.
Didn’t see any last night. It was partly cloudy/hazy in my location (eastern Kansas) last night. I’m hoping to see some tonight. I’m planning on heading out shortly to see if I can find any earthgrazers this evening and if any will show up in the early hours.