Hailey Heseltine
news@greenepublishing.com
For those of you who like to keep eyes on the skies, August is bringing a few astronomical events for you to enjoy.
• Aug. 9 is the Full Sturgeon Moon. Your eyes aren’t deceiving you - the month of August’s full moon really is named after a fish. Historically, the giant lake sturgeon was abundant and often caught around this time of year, giving it its unique name. Some other nicknames for the event, derived from some different Native American cultures, are Flying Up Moon, Corn Moon, Harvest Moon, Ricing Moon, Black Cherries Moon and Mountain Shadows Moon. Though it specifically occurs at 7:55 GMT on the date, it will appear fully illuminated the day before and after, so you should have a little time to observe this beaming beauty in the sky.
• Around Monday, Aug. 11, you can see six planets in peak planetary alignment, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus, Neptune and Saturn. Out of the six, four should be visible to the naked eye, and if you’d like to catch a glimpse of Neptune or Uranus, you can try using binoculars or a telescope. According to the Farmer’s Almanac, they should be visible about 45 minutes to an hour before sunrise if you look east. While not a complete seven-planet parade (the next one will be in 2028), it’s a great way to get a look at the worlds beyond ours. Plus, you’ll still be able to see the planets for days after the peak.
• Around the nights of Tuesday, Aug. 12 and Wednesday, Aug. 13, the Perseids Meteor Shower will peak, with about 50 to 100 observable meteors per hour, according to NASA. Unfortunately, this will be only a few days after the full moon, so visibility will be negatively affected by the moonlight. If you’d like to watch the meteors, you’ll need to look northeast during the pre-dawn hours, preferable as far away from light pollution or direct moonlight as possible. This shower is named after their radiant, the point in the sky they appear to be coming from, which is the Perseus constellation. Note that, despite their appearance, they don’t actually come from the constellation; the meteors originate with the large comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, which was discovered in 1862 and realized to be the meteors’ origin in 1865.