August nights delight
Without a doubt, the highlight for stargazing in August is the annual Perseid meteor shower. Actually, it already has begun and will peak early on the morning of Aug. 12, when you may see more than 50 meteors or "shooting stars" an hour after midnight.
The approaching full moon will get in the way somewhat, but by 1:30 a.m. or so it will be below the western horizon, leaving us with dark skies to pursue the Perseids. I'll have more on the Perseid meteor shower in next week's Starwatch.
With nights getting shorter, you won't have to stay up quite as late to begin your stargazing adventures.
The first star you'll see toward the end of evening twilight is actually the planet Jupiter, already on the rise in the low southeastern sky. As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, it's a lot of fun to check out Jupiter with binoculars or a telescope to see how many cloud bands you see on the mighty planet. You might even see the big red spot, which is more like a pink spot.
You can also keep up with Jupiter's changing moons dancing on either side of the planet and see if you can spot their shadows as they cross in front of the Jovian giant.
You may also catch the bright planet Venus in the very low west-northwestern sky at the end of evening twilight, although it sets shortly thereafter. Later this month, Mercury will join Venus in the west. Stay tuned for more on that.
The summer constellations are in full bloom now and there's much to gaze upon. If you're lucky enough to be in the countryside, somewhat away from light pollution, you're in for a real show.
Summer evenings are the best time to see the Milky Way band, a ribbon of light stretching nearly overhead from the northern to southern horizon. All of the stars we see in our skies are members of the Milky Way, a galaxy in the shape of a spiral disk. When you see that milky band of light, you are looking at the main plane of the Milky Way Galaxy, where most of the stars are. In fact, there are so many of them that they are bathing us in a continual glow.
The rest of the stars that we see in the night sky outside of this Milky Way band are all stars that are relatively close neighbors to our sun and Earth.
If you follow the Milky Way band to the southern horizon, you'll run right into one of my favorite constellations, what I call "the little teapot," more formally known as the constellation Sagittarius the Archer.
Sagittarius is supposed to be a half-man, half-horse shooting an arrow, but it's much, much easier to see it as a teapot. The bright planet Jupiter is just above the handle of the teapot this month. To the right or west of the teapot is Scorpius the Scorpion, the rare constellation that actually looks like a Scorpion. It kind of looks as if the little teapot is pouring hot liquid on the scorpion's tail, making it curl up even more.
Over in the northwestern sky is the Big Dipper hanging by its handle, and the much fainter Little Dipper, with Polaris, the North Star, at the end of the handle.
In the northeast is a giant "W," otherwise known as the constellation Cassiopeia the Queen. That W outlines a throne that Queen Cassiopeia is eternally tied to as punishment for offending Hera, the Queen of the gods of Mount Olympus.
Nearly overhead is the Summer Triangle, made up of three bright stars; Vega, Altair, and Deneb. All three of these stars are the brightest in their respective constellations Lyra the Harp, Cygnus the Swan, and Aquila the Evil Eagle.
The Summer Triangle is a great tool to help you find these constellations and other surrounding celestial portraits.
Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and is author of the book, "Pennsylvania Starwatch," available at bookstores and at his Web site www.lynchandthestars.com
