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By Gary S. Zientara
For the news of Taos
I always enjoy writing about Perseid's annual meteor shower (PURR-see-ID).
This is one of the most reliable and relatively prolific meteor showers of all. This year is no exception
In fact, astronomers predict the peak at 19 hours. Mountain Time August 12th. It will be a little too early because the sun will not set before 19h55. and these small streaks of light will not be visible for at least 21 hours. No matter, because I think the peak will still be going on later in the night, and the brightness of the moon will not interfere.
Here's what to do and how to see the Perseids:
1) Dress in cold weather. It cools very quickly in the high country.
2) Find an open field away from the outside lights.
3) Bring a blanket and a pillow or lounge chair flat.
4) Lie down with your feet facing north-east and relax while you scan the night sky. The meteors will appear everywhere, but their tracks can be traced to a point in the sky called, "the radiant" in the constellation Perseus The Hero. (View the star chart)
My best guess is that you will see the most meteors from 10:30 pm. until 2:30 the next morning. If you are tired of waiting for meteors, bring a pair of binoculars (10 X 50 are the best) that you can use to scan the night sky and the summer Milky Way. From north-west to south-east you will see the planets Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars. There is also our sister galaxy (the Great Andromeda Galaxy) to explore to the right of the "Z" shaped constellation in the shape of "Cbadiopeia". It's an object to the naked eye that we see best through binoculars because it's so big.
Saturn at the Opposition
The outer planets of our solar system orbit the Sun at a slower speed than the Earth. When we pbad near one of them, we are exactly between the sun and this outer planet. This is what is called "opposition" (the planet is on the opposite side of the Earth compared to the sun).
Astronomers love oppositions because the target planet is closest to us, is visible all night and is as bright as possible to see it. Saturn is the planet that most people want to see because of its unique big and beautiful rings. This year's opposition took place at the end of June when the nights were relatively hot.
The only problem of this year's opposition was the near-full moon located almost right next to Saturn. This made it difficult to see the gaseous giant because the moon is 39 times brighter.
Saturn will shine almost as brightly this week and will have the same angular size until July 27th. If you even have a small telescope, you can also see the beautiful rings and up to five of Saturn's brightest moons. Perhaps you will also see Cbadini's dark division between the rings if the Earth's atmosphere is stable enough to minimize distortion due to turbulence.
You can find Saturn using only your eyes. It will be the bright star of caramel color over the teapot motif of the Sagittarius constellation.
Saturn drifts through the thick fields of stars of the Milky Way, so you might have trouble distinguishing its moons from the many background stars. Astronomy apps are available for your smartphone that you can use to locate Saturn's moons in real time.
Most of them have a function that corresponds to the orientation of moons with the optical path of your telescope. If you have a sharp vision or if you are a young person with good night vision, one of the moons will have a reddish appearance like Mars.
This moon is Titan with a red and foggy atmosphere that surrounds it. Titan is the only known object in our solar system except the Earth that has liquid lakes on its surface. The lakes are not water. Titan is so cold (290 degrees below zero Fahrenheit) that water can only exist as hard ice. The lakes consist of methane and ethane, hydrocarbons that exist as gases on Earth.
The Spanish version of this column is on page C4.
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