<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The first week of August falls halfway between the June 20<\/span> Solstice<\/b> and the September 21 <\/span>Equinox<\/b>.\u00a0 While our daylight hours have been growing slightly shorter, we will still be seeing about 14.5 hours of sunshine (hopefully) ahead of the 12 hour split between light and dark that gives the September Equinox its name (\u2018Equal Night\u2019).\u00a0 It takes the Earth\u2019s land and water masses some time to absorb the Sun\u2019s energy so the warmest days of the summer do not happen when the Solstice takes place in June, but rather during the mid-July to end of August.\u00a0 Land also cools faster than bodies of water so do not abandon the beaches after Labor Day.\u00a0 The Lake Superior Swim Club members inform me that some of the best Lake Superior swimming happens in September and October after most people have already hung up their beach blankets.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Another misconception about August astronomical viewing involves the <\/span>Perseid Meteor Shower<\/b>.\u00a0 The peak of this year\u2019s shower is around August 12, but increased activity radiating from the constellation of <\/span>Perseus<\/b> actually lasts from July 17 to August 24.\u00a0 The <\/span>First Quarter Moon <\/b>(August 12) won\u2019t interfere around the peak as viewed from the mid-northern latitudes.\u00a0 Tracing the path of a meteor in the direction from which it came points to what is called the <\/span>radiant<\/b> which for this shower is the constellation Perseus (hence, the name of the shower).\u00a0 The radiant will be in the sky all night and could produce sightings of up to 100 meteors per hour near the August 12 peak.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The new Lunar Cycle begins with the <\/span>New Moon <\/b>on August 4.\u00a0 The <\/span>Full Moon <\/b>(Aug 19) will also be a <\/span>Blue Moon <\/b>and a <\/span>Supermoon.\u00a0 <\/b>Most people know that a Blue Moon is the second Full Moon to take place in a given month.\u00a0 The August Blue Moon is a seasonal one which NASA defines as, \u201cThe third Full Moon of an astronomical season that has four Full Moons and happens between the summer solstice and the fall equinox.\u201d\u00a0 The <\/span>Last Quarter Moon <\/b>will take place on August 26, leading up to the next New Moon on September 2.\u00a0 Search for the <\/span>Very Young Crescent Moon <\/b>low in the western sky 40 minutes after sunset on August 5 when it will be closely paired with <\/span>Venus<\/b>.\u00a0 Lunar <\/span>Apogee<\/b> takes place on Aug 8 when the Moon will be 251,839 miles from Earth at 10 p.m. EDT while Lunar <\/span>Perigee<\/b> will be reached on Aug 21 with the Moon\u2019s distance will be 223,815 miles at 1 a.m. EDT<\/span>.<\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0As previously mentioned, Venus will be hanging low in the western sky just after sunset.\u00a0 It won\u2019t be hard to find shining at magnitude -4.6.\u00a0 Observing<\/span> Mercury <\/b>will be another matter.\u00a0 With the low angle of the ecliptic at this time of year, the mag 1.1 Mercury will be even lower to the horizon than and slightly to the left of Venus.\u00a0 <\/span>Saturn<\/b> in the ESE two hours after sunset and will be occulted by the almost Full Moon on August 20.\u00a0 A telescopic view will show the <\/span>Rings of Saturn <\/b>tilted only 3 degrees from edge on.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Morning planetary viewing will be more rewarding for early risers this month.\u00a0 Located in the constellation of <\/span>Taurus, the Bull,<\/b> bright <\/span>Jupiter<\/b> (mag 2.0) and red <\/span>Mars <\/b>(mag 0.9) can be seen in the East two hours before sunrise.\u00a0 They begin the month 6.6 degrees apart and will move a half a degree closer each day until they reach <\/span>conjunction <\/b>on August 27.\u00a0 By August 31, the Mars-Jupiter gap will have widened to 8.5 degrees.\u00a0 The view of that part of Taurus will be enhanced by the reddish star <\/span>Aldebaran <\/b>and two star clusters, the <\/span>Hyades <\/b>and <\/span>Pleiades.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>The Sky Calendar authors point out that historically, they like to observe the sky immediately after the August 12 Perseids Meteor Peak.\u00a0 They say, \u201cWe look for the rising of <\/span>Sirius, the Dog Star <\/b>in the ESE morning twilight glow, below <\/span>Orion.\u00a0 <\/b>After Siriius has risen and before <\/span>Altair <\/b>sets, there are 11 stars of <\/span>first magnitude or brighter <\/b>visible simultaneously.\u201d\u00a0 They further point out that adding the three bright outer planets to this array, \u201cgives you a treasure.\u00a0 You can enjoy the same starry scene four minutes earlier daily, or two hours per month, until mid-January, when Altair disappears into the western evening twilight glow,\u00a0 And the same three planets will still be around with Venus added.\u201d\u00a0 Charts detailing the star positions can be found on the <\/span>Sky Calendar Extra Content Page <\/span><\/i>at the Abrams Planetarium site listed below.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n 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 X (formerly 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 – Okay, so basically it is just the band name that connects here – ORION THE HUNTER featuring Boston alum Barry Goodreau on guitar and a Brad Delp sound alike vocalist in Fran Cosmo –\u00a0 video was pretty typical mid 1980s MTV fodder!\u00a0 But still a good band!!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The first week of August falls halfway between the June 20 Solstice and the September 21 Equinox.\u00a0 While our daylight hours have been growing slightly shorter, we will still be seeing about 14.5 hours of sunshine (hopefully) ahead of the 12 hour split between light and dark that gives the September Equinox its name […]<\/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-3260","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\/3260","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=3260"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3264,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3260\/revisions\/3264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}