Dining & Nightlife | Astronomy

Way back in 1959—when radios were built with tubes, transistors were barely out of the laboratory, and computers were something most people encountered only in science fiction—the Explorer 6 satellite transmitted the first television image of Earth as it appeared from space. A mere two years later, more history was made when the first Americans rode off into that mysterious realm beyond our atmosphere. Twenty-two years after that historic flight, Guion “Guy” Bluford became the first African-American to experience space travel; he served as mission specialist on the STS-8 flight of the Challenger Space Shuttle, which launched on August 30, 1983. The Magellan spacecraft arrived at Venus on August 10, 1990 after a 15-month trip from Earth; it spent the next four years producing a detailed map of the planet’s surface. Finally, on the 29th of August 2008, a computer worm crawled its way into a laptop aboard the International Space Station! It is amazing to consider that today’s typical laptop has thousands of times more computing power than the largest mainframes of the 60s and 70s and, with the right software, can easily serve as a spacecraft’s on-board navigational computer!

Although it will not be visible to the naked eye, there will be a penumbral lunar eclipse on August 6th. Of course, as with all lunar eclipses, the Moon will be full. The new Moon falls on August 20th.

August will be a great time for viewing planets. Saturn will appear without rings (something that happens only once every 14 or 15 years) from May 10th through September 4th and, consequently, its moons will be easily observed. Jupiter will be at opposition (closest to Earth and frontally illuminated by the Sun) on the 14th of August. Throughout the month, it will be one of the brightest objects (aside from the Moon) gracing the late night sky. Seen through a telescope, it should be easy to discern bands of color as well as several moons. Just three days later, on the 17th, Neptune will reach opposition. Compared with Jupiter, Neptune is a more difficult planet to observe, being much farther away, so you really want to view Neptune through a powerful telescope. Uranus will also be up in the late evening and, like Neptune, is primarily a telescope planet. Of course, you are welcome to visit Custer and take a look at both planets (and a whole lot more) through our new domed 25-inch telescope.

The Perseids will peak between the 11th and 14th of August, with some meteors being visible from July 23rd through August 22nd. Look high in the northeast sky, especially after midnight. At its peak, one can expect up to sixty meteors per hour. The shower is noted for meteors that leave long and persistent trails.