NASA’s skywatching tips for August include a meteor shower

With Venus and Mars having slipped from view in the interim, we are able to flip our gaze towards Saturn as an alternative. The second planet in our photo voltaic system reaches opposition this month, which means it’s straight reverse the solar as seen from Earth. It’ll be showing simply after sundown and can stay seen till daybreak, giving us loads of time to test it out. On the morning of August 3, Saturn will probably be viewable proper beside the moon.

This time of yr provides an awesome likelihood to see among the best identified meteor showers, the Perseids.

You’ll be listening to quite a bit in regards to the moon in August, because the month begins and finishes with a full moon, one thing that solely occurs as soon as each few years.

“A second full moon in a single calendar month is often referred to as a ‘blue moon,’” NASA says. “They occur each two-to-three years as a result of the moon’s month-to-month cycle is only a bit shorter than the typical size of a month. So finally a full moon will occur originally of a month, with sufficient days left for an entire lunar cycle. When that occurs, we get a blue moon.”

This month’s blue moon, on August 30, can be a supermoon. The company explains: “The moon’s orbit isn’t an ideal circle, so generally it’s slightly farther away from Earth and generally nearer. At its closest level, referred to as perigee, it’s 14% nearer than at its farthest. About three-to-four instances a yr, the complete moon part occurs to coincide with the moon reaching perigee, and we name that occasion a supermoon.” It notes that though it “technically seems slightly bit larger (and a tad brighter) than the typical full moon, the distinction shouldn’t be tremendous noticeable to the attention.”

The mixture of those two particular full moons ends in what’s often known as a “tremendous blue moon,” a phenomenon that takes place solely about as soon as each 10 years on common, although the time between occurrences can fluctuate from two months to twenty years or extra.

“So get pleasure from this month’s two full moons, and whereas the second received’t seem super-sized, or any bluer than standard, now what makes it particular,” NASA says.

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