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August 2010 | Diese Seite in deutsch  |
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 Overview
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 Events
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 The Starry Sky in August Sunrise and Sunset The Phases of the Moon The Planets |
 Perseïds and other Falling Stars July Moon | ||
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...with astronomical dusk/dawn for 52°31'30" North and 13°18'45" East at 3m above sealevel (StarryNight 2.0)
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1.: 01:19
11.: 02:04
21.: 02:37
31.: 03:05 (MET) | |
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1.: 04:28
11.: 04:44
21.: 05:01
31.: 05:17 (MET) | |
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1.: 19:57
11.: 19:39
21.: 19:18
31.: 18:56 (MET) | |
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1.: 23:01
11.: 22:16
21.: 21:39
31.: 21:06 (MET) |
 | 3.: 5:59 |
 | 10.: 4:08 |
 | 16.: 19:14 |
 | 24.: 18:05 (MET)
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 | invisible at daylight sky in Leo/Sextans/Leo | |
 | barely visible at the evening sky in Virgo | |
 | barely visible at the evening sky in Virgo | |
 | visible at the nightly sky in Pisces | |
 | barely visible at the evening sky in Virgo | |
 | visible at the nightly sky in Pisces | |
 | visible at the nightly sky in Aquarius | |
 | visible at the nightly sky in Sagittarius |
Illustrations: StarryNight 2.0 & -- jd --
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The Berlin Starry Sky at 15.8. at 0h MET with Perseïds, Kappa-Cygnids and Cepheïds
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At the start of the month there will be the Delta-Aquarids and the Alpha-Capricornida around, which had their maxima at the end of July. The Delta-Aquarids are active up to the 19th of August, while the Alpha-Capricornids will disappear until the 15th of August.
Within the night of August 12 to 13 two meteor streams will have their maximum. At the first place the Perseïds should be noted, which will create at the time of the maximum up to 100 light streaks at the sky. They have their main appearance from August 10 to 14. The meteors will have a speed of about 60 km/s and with this somewhat fast. The radiant or celestial origin of the meteors lies within the constellation of Perseus where the Perseïds have their name from. They are also known as "the Tears of Laurentius". They have this name because in ancient times the meteors had their maximum around the 10th of August, which is also the day of St. Laurentius or St. Lorenz, who was burned on a stake by the Romans on a 10th of August.
The second stream of falling stars which have its maximum at midnight of the 12th of August this year is the Kappa-Cygnids. They differ from the Perseïds in their speed, because with 23 km/s the meteors are noticably slower. One or the other falling star of this stream can be seen from August 3 to August 25. This year for watching the Perseïds and the Kappa-Cygnids is nearly ideal, because the Moon will be at new moon on August 10, so that only some or no moonlight will disturb the meteors.
At August 17 the Moon will be 1 day after the first quarter, so that also at that day there will nearly no disturbing moonlight, when the Cepheïds will have their maximum. At that maximum there will be up to ten meteors per hour, which will be similar slow as the Kappa-Cygnids.
At the 24th of the month the Moon will be close to full moon, so that the bright moonlight will overshine possible meteors. From the 25th of August until the 5th of September the Alpha-Aurigids appear, which should have up to ten falling stars per hour at their maximum on September 1.
All data are taken from the Kosmos-Himmelsjahr 2010. The Meteor Shower Calendar by Gary Kronk lists besides of the Perseïds and the Kappa-Cygnids also the Northern and Southern Iota-Aquarids, the Alpha-Capricornids and the Delta-Aquarids for August. There are no Cepheïds noted in this calendar. So if there will be a clear night in August, one can make a picture of oneself at a darker place, which falling stars will be visible in this month.
With todays digital cameras it is possible to make pictures at least from the Moon, which can be compared to photographies made with a smaller telescope and a single lens mirror camera. The following pictures were all made with a Canon Powershot SX210 in July 2010:
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All pictures were made with the AUTO mode at full optical zoom (14x) and a variable part of the digital zoom. The first image is from July 19 at about 22h (MEST, seven days before full moon), the second from July 21 at about 22h (MEST, five days before full moon), the third from July 29 at about 4h (MEST, three days after full moon), and the fourth from July 31 at about 3h (MEST, five days after full moon). The caption parameter from the first image are 1/160th second at ISO800 and f5.8, from the second 1/200th second at ISO800 and f5.9, from the third 1/250th second at ISO320 and f5.9, and from the fourth 1/200th second at ISO800 and f5.9. All images were downscaled, clipped, and the bright regions were darkened using the gradiation curve.
All pictures show several details at the terminator, but not that much details which can be produced with a real telescope and on an analog film. It will be interesting to make more pictures of the Moon in more extreme phases while fully manual adjusting the parameter...
created: 2010-01-25 from German version
modified: 2010-01-25 translated
modified: 2010-08-05 Julymoon
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