Stargazing

By Ken Campbell

Perseids & The Eclipse

This week we have two spectacular events that you can watch with the naked eye.

Comets are like huge dirty snowballs that usually live outside our solar system. Occasionally one of them will get disturbed in its orbit and will begin to fall in towards the Sun. As they get nearer to the Sun the heat causes them to vaporise and the associated tail of the Comet begins to grow. The tail is made from billions of tiny pieces of rock, dust and ice and can stretch for many millions of miles. The debris from the tail will remain hanging in space long after the comet has passed.

One particular comet called Swift-Tuttle is in a very predictable elliptical orbit that takes it way out into deep space and then swings back towards the Sun every 133 years. It last passed our way in 1992. Not very remarkable you may say, except that its tail crosses the orbit of the Earth and this week we are going to crash right through it!

Passing through a comets tail will do us no harm and we are not in any danger but it should cause a very spectacular meteor display known as the Perseid meteor shower. Meteors are caused by the tiny particles of debris striking the Earth’s upper atmosphere at several thousands of miles an hour and being burned up by the friction with the air. This causes a brief streak of light across the sky.

It takes the Earth about a week to pass right through the comets tail but tonight 11th and tomorrow 12th are the peak times to watch them. Sit in a comfortable chair or sun lounger in as dark an area as possible and look up and hopefully you could see anything up to 120 meteors an hour streaking across the sky. You may see meteors appearing in any part of the sky but if you follow an imaginary line backwards then they should all originate from the constellation of Perseus, hence the name.

Unfortunately it will be almost full Moon this year so all but the brightest meteors will be lost in the glare.

Eclipse of The Moon

Talking of the Moon, this Saturday 16th August we have an almost total eclipse of the Moon. When the Moon rises out of the sea at around 9.30pm the eclipse will have already begun. As it rises higher in the sky then gradually more and more of its disc will become covered by the Earth’s shadow. During the eclipse you should be able to make out the curve of the Earth in its shadow.

Maximum eclipse occurs at 11.10pm when about 95% of the Moon will be covered by the shadow. The Moon won’t go black but instead will turn a very deep shade of brick red colour. This is caused by sunlight being refracted through the Earth’s atmosphere similar to red sunsets and sunrises.

Unlike an eclipse of the Sun, an eclipse of the Moon is quite safe to look at; you don’t need any special filters to watch it. If you have binoculars or a telescope then you can use these to get a better view.

I recommend sitting in a bar or restaurant along the coast and having a drink or a meal while watching the eclipse, it should be the romantic event of the decade.

Each Monday, Wednesday and Friday throughout August we are running astronomy sessions at the top of Benelmadena Mountain. Using large telescopes and high powered lasers we are able to show you some of the things that can be seen in the night sky. Take the cable car up from Tivoli World.

For more updated news on the Costa Del Stars go to www.kencampbell.info     

For more info about the Planetarium click here