Poster’s Note: The text for this month’s installment from Dee Sharples, “The Sky In August 2024,” is provided below. Those wishing to listen to the article can click on the audio link below.
August brings us one of the best meteor showers of the year. The Perseid meteor shower peaks before dawn on August 12th, but many meteors can be seen starting late on the night of August 11th. Although the moon will brighten the sky on the night the peak begins, it will set around midnight, so there will be dark skies for several hours until dawn on the 12th. The Perseids are active from July 17th to August 24th, but the number of meteors you’ll be able to see then will be much less than at the peak when it’s possible to see 60 – 100 meteors per hour from a dark sky location.
The Perseids are caused by Earth passing through debris, bits of ice, dust and rock left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle which passed through our solar system in 1992 and will return in the year 2126.
In 1862, Comet Swift-Tuttle was discovered independently by two astronomers, Lewis Swift and Horace Tuttle. Lewis Swift lived in Rochester, NY for several years and observed the sky from the Warner Observatory which he described as being “located on the south side of East Avenue, one-third of a mile from the University of Rochester”. It no longer exists today.
The meteors will appear to originate from the radiant, a location in the constellation Perseus. Perseus isn’t the easiest constellation to identify, but it’s near the brighter and distinctively shaped constellation Cassiopeia. Cassiopeia can be found half way up from the horizon in the northeast and circles counter-clockwise around Polaris, the North Star. This constellation looks like a large letter “W” or an “M” depending on the month and time you look for it. See the accompanying star charts to help you locate it. Then find the darkest possible location, dress warm, lean back in a chair and let your eyes wander the sky. As your eyes fully adjust to the dark, which will take 15-20 minutes, you’ll be able to see the fainter meteors. A Perseid meteor streaks across the sky at 37 miles per second or 133,200 miles per hour!
You don’t need a telescope or binoculars to enjoy this meteor shower as it’s a naked-eye event. Think of the night sky as a dome over your head; meteors can be seen in any part of the sky. Be patient and you’ll be rewarded by an exciting display of “shooting stars”.
