{"id":2907,"date":"2023-07-27T16:59:05","date_gmt":"2023-07-27T16:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=2907"},"modified":"2023-07-27T17:02:38","modified_gmt":"2023-07-27T17:02:38","slug":"astrocal-august-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=2907","title":{"rendered":"AstroCal – August 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

AstroCal – August 2023<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Cue the Marcels (as in the song <\/span>Blue Moon<\/span><\/i>) because August will be a two <\/span>Full Moon <\/b>month.\u00a0 By the classic definition, the second Full Moon in a calendar month is called a <\/span>Blue Moon<\/b>.\u00a0 Both of the August Full Moons will also be what are known as <\/span>Super Moons<\/b> so named when the <\/span>Moon<\/b> is closer to the <\/span>Earth<\/b> and appears larger than an average Full Moon.\u00a0 This was a little confusing to me because I could not wrap my mind around how the Moon could be closer to the Earth twice in a month because with an elliptical orbit, it can only be closest to the Earth at one point in this orbit.\u00a0 It turns out, there is a little more to the story of how Super Moons are identified.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The first Super Moon will take place on August 1 when the moon is at <\/span>perigee<\/b>, or the closest its elliptical orbit will bring it to the Earth. \u00a0 This fits the traditional idea of the Moon appearing larger when it is closer to the Earth.\u00a0 Oddly enough, the Moon will be at apogee, or its farthest point from the Earth when it is again full on August 31.\u00a0 How can it be a Supermoon if it is now farther from the Earth than it was on August 1?\u00a0 Super Moons are also defined by the distance between the center of the Moon and the Earth. \u00a0 Any time the Full Moon occurs when its center is less than 224,000 miles from the center of the Earth, it is called a Supermoon.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This means the August 31 Full Moon will not only be a <\/span>Blue Moon <\/b>(the name given to the second Full Moon in any given month), it will be a <\/span>Super Blue Moon <\/b>because its distance will be within this range.\u00a0 This August 1 Full Moon is also known as the Sturgeon Moon.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>The <\/span>Last Quarter Moon<\/b> will take place on August 8 followed by the <\/span>New Moon <\/b>on August 16.\u00a0 The <\/span>First Quarter Moon <\/b>will fall on August 24 and the previously mentioned Super Blue Moon will happen on August 31.\u00a0 Look for an <\/span>occultation<\/b> of the star <\/span>Antares, the Eye of Scorpius <\/b>by the First Quarter Moon about one hour after sunset on the 24th.\u00a0 With the <\/span>Perseid meteor shower <\/b>peaking in the early morning hours of August 13, the New Moon will offer excellent dark sky viewing.\u00a0 It is not uncommon to see increased meteor activity a day before and the day after the August 13 peak.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Shining at magnitude -2.3, <\/span>Jupiter<\/b> continues to dominate the morning skies even in areas with a good deal of light pollution.\u00a0 It will be joined by <\/span>Saturn <\/b>later in the month.\u00a0 Shining at +0.7, Saturn is a little more difficult to locate\u00a0 but finding it is a bit easier if one looks just to the left of the Full Moon on August 2.\u00a0 Saturn will reach <\/span>opposition <\/b>(when it will be directly opposite the Sun when viewed from Earth) making it visible in the east at sunset.\u00a0 This positioning means it will be visible all night long as it crosses to the western sky before sunrise.\u00a0 This month will also see a plane crossing of the <\/span>Ringed Planet<\/b> which happens approximately every 15 years.\u00a0 This event takes place when the Rings of Saturn are viewed \u2018edge on\u2019 and is a prime time for astronomers to search for undiscovered moons.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The evening planets include<\/span> Mercury<\/b> and <\/span>Mars<\/b> low in the western sky.\u00a0 Mercury will be so low to the horizon it will be very difficult to observe.\u00a0 Look for the <\/span>Red Planet<\/b> due west, just above the horizon 40 minutes after sunset.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Our August historical event also involves Mars.\u00a0 On August 11, 1877 Asaph Hall was working at the U.S. Naval Observatory when he discovered the Martian moon <\/span>Diemos<\/b>.\u00a0 This is the smaller of the planet’s two tiny moons whose irregular shape has led some to describe them as \u2018potato moons\u2019.\u00a0 Hall was becoming frustrated searching for any other Martian moons.\u00a0 With his wife Angelina\u2019s encouragement, he continued his observations and found Diemos\u2019s larger companion <\/span>Phobos <\/b>six days later on August 17.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Compiled by Ken Raisanen of WOAS-FM – information provided by <\/span>Abrams Planetarium Sky Calendar<\/span><\/i>, Michigan State University.\u00a0 More information and subscription information can be found on their website at <\/span>http:\/\/abramsplanetarium.org\/<\/span><\/a>skycalendar\/ or on Twitter at <\/span>http:\/\/twitter.com\/AbramsSkyNotes<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 Yearly subscriptions cost $12 and can be started anytime.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Okay, I could not find a live clip of the Marcels – so how about Sha Na Na’s pepped up version of\u00a0Blue Moon?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AstroCal – August 2023   \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Cue the Marcels (as in the song Blue Moon) because August will be a two Full Moon month.\u00a0 By the classic definition, the second Full Moon in a calendar month is called a Blue Moon.\u00a0 Both of the August Full Moons will also be what are known as Super Moons […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2907"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2910,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2907\/revisions\/2910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}