Speaker 1: I'm Doctor Sky and welcome to the Doctor Sky Experience,
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Speaker 1: the realms of astronomy, space, aviation, weather, and that.
Speaker 2: Of American exceptionalism.
Speaker 1: So let's now dig deep into month August twenty twenty six,
Speaker 1: an incredible month for skywatchers. August twenty twenty six brings
Speaker 1: us as we can begin and talk about the moon.
Speaker 1: As we open up the month of August, we find
Speaker 1: out that the moon is moving on as a waning
Speaker 1: gibbus subject meaning it's moving on to its last quarter phase.
Speaker 1: On the sixth of August, it rises around midnight and
Speaker 1: is high up in your southern sky or thereabouts.
Speaker 2: At around sunrise.
Speaker 1: The moon continues to wane and moves on to its
Speaker 1: new phase, and that happens on the twelfth of August.
Speaker 1: And there's a good reason to talk about this particular
Speaker 1: new moon because it coincides with one of the best
Speaker 1: medio showers of the entire year. But as we always say,
Speaker 1: be careful what you wish for, because the information I'm
Speaker 1: giving you here is the best estimate of these very
Speaker 1: fickle events called meteor showers, but some of them can
Speaker 1: be quite spectacular. The moon then moves on past the
Speaker 1: twelfth as it waxes once again in our sky. It
Speaker 1: then moves on to first quarter on August the twentieth,
Speaker 1: and then the last full moon that we'll talk about
Speaker 1: for the month of August, which there is one, occurs
Speaker 1: only twenty eight But what's interesting if you look into
Speaker 1: your August guys, get set for the persead meteor show
Speaker 1: a little back history on.
Speaker 2: It's an event that it's been observed for a couple
Speaker 2: of hundred years.
Speaker 1: And why do I say this, Because all of the
Speaker 1: meteor showers come from the debris from comets, and the
Speaker 1: perseods are known to be debris like the exhaust out
Speaker 1: of a vehicle. Whether it's diesel or gas powered from
Speaker 1: a comet called Swift Tuttel, and the comet itself the
Speaker 1: origin of the perseods. The comet goes around the Sun
Speaker 1: wants every one hundred and thirty three years, so as
Speaker 1: you can imagine, when the orbit of this particular comet
Speaker 1: intersects with the Earth, all that debris that's been been
Speaker 1: pumped out from the tail of the comet over the
Speaker 1: course of centuries intersects with the Earth. Just like you're
Speaker 1: driving on two interstates, let's say, or one interstate where
Speaker 1: they could both collide, and of course you don't want
Speaker 1: to have any problem that way, but it's just a
Speaker 1: good illustration because when on one highway that's the commentary debris,
Speaker 1: and on the other highway you would find that of
Speaker 1: the debris moving through and you're moving unplanted earth. Percyads
Speaker 1: can be very fickle, but they can be very good.
Speaker 1: So here's when we think that as astronomers, the peak
Speaker 1: of the shower occurs looking high into the northeast sky.
Speaker 1: My best guess inmate would be the nights of August
Speaker 1: eleventh and into the morning of the twelfth, and then
Speaker 1: once again on the evening of the twelfth into the
Speaker 1: morning of the thirteenth. Some say that peak activity of
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty sixth Percions will occur on the morning
Speaker 1: hours of the thirteenth.
Speaker 2: But here's how to see it.
Speaker 1: Get comfortable, get a chair and hopefully you'll have clear skies.
Speaker 1: Look to the northeast sky after midnight till sunrise.
Speaker 2: Now, with the.
Speaker 1: Lots of heat in the northern hemisphere, that should be
Speaker 1: a pleasure to sit outside when it's a little bit cooler,
Speaker 1: other than being out during the blazing days of the sunlight.
Speaker 2: These meteors can be very interesting.
Speaker 1: They come out from the top portion of the head
Speaker 1: of a constellation called Perseus, the hero. Yes, he's the
Speaker 1: guy that slays of course, the dragon. At least she
Speaker 1: looked like a dragon when we saw Medusa with her
Speaker 1: hair full of snakes. He of course, in mythology, that's
Speaker 1: a big part. So the Percied meteor shower can be good.
Speaker 1: I've watched it for forty years and I can tell
Speaker 1: you categorically, during the mid and early nineties we had
Speaker 1: a real sky show that Percy Is where we saw
Speaker 1: hundreds of meteors per hour. So your goal is to
Speaker 1: find a dark location hopefully clear, no no smell clouds
Speaker 1: on the sky, and you should be able to get
Speaker 1: to see some of these so called shooting stars. These
Speaker 1: are interesting. They're not shooting stars at all, but they're
Speaker 1: debriathed from the things I mentioned before, the tail.
Speaker 2: End of a comet, the average size.
Speaker 1: If you're a fan of a cereal called grape nuts,
Speaker 1: they would be particles the size of the little grape nut,
Speaker 1: little pellets, and maybe some larger, but none hit the earth.
Speaker 1: They're traveling it over one hundred and thirty thousand miles
Speaker 1: an hour, and when you see them, so called incinerating
Speaker 1: in the sky, they give you a very interesting sky show.
Speaker 2: So hopefully you'll have.
Speaker 1: Some observations of the perseods. The reason I mentioned it
Speaker 1: so many people take vacations this time of year, so
Speaker 1: enjoy the perseods as many other meteor showers. But again
Speaker 1: a doctor sky warning, and always honest, you never really
Speaker 1: can tell how many you see. And boy do I
Speaker 1: get in trouble sometimes when I tell people you'll be
Speaker 1: ready to see one of the best meteor showers of
Speaker 1: the year, get set and then all of a sudden
Speaker 1: things happen. An astronomer named David Levy, who's discovered many
Speaker 1: many comets. He descries comets like cats, and the reason
Speaker 1: I mention this it also relates very well to meteor showers.
Speaker 1: And he says, and I quote, that comets are like cats.
Speaker 1: They both have tails, and they do exactly what they want.
Speaker 1: And so be it with the perseeds. Let's move on
Speaker 1: to planets. If you're an early morning riser, the innermost
Speaker 1: planet Mercury is visible tour in the early morning powers,
Speaker 1: which reaches a distance of almost twenty degrees away from
Speaker 1: the rising Sun. It's called Mercury's westernmost elongation. Now, remember
Speaker 1: inferior or planet's not because we don't like them. Mercury
Speaker 1: and Venus because they're closer in than the Earth is.
Speaker 2: They can only.
Speaker 1: Subtend an angle so far away from the Sun because
Speaker 1: of their orbits. So Mercury can get twenty plus degrees
Speaker 1: away from Sun, Venus forty six or forty seven degrees.
Speaker 2: But take a look. I think you'll enjoy it.
Speaker 1: And then we find out the other planet that's in
Speaker 1: the early evening sky still is the planet Venus, the
Speaker 1: goddess of love and beauty. Venus reaches a position called dichotomy.
Speaker 1: Now what does that fancy term mean. It means in
Speaker 1: a telescope, you'll see it half illuminated, like a first
Speaker 1: quarter moon, or like a last quarter moon. And now
Speaker 1: some seventy million miles away. So when you see that
Speaker 1: big blazing object in the northwest, no, it's not a
Speaker 1: UAP or a UFO. It's the planet Venus and the
Speaker 1: reason and it's so bright. And you probably knew this,
Speaker 1: but I'll tell you anyway. The amount of light that
Speaker 1: a planet receives and the amount of light it reflects
Speaker 1: into space is a term called albedo. And since Venus
Speaker 1: is covered in heavy clouds, the reflectivity of that with
Speaker 1: the clouds makes Venus extremely bright. Remember, she is the
Speaker 1: goddess of love and beauty. She obviously many people's estimations,
Speaker 1: is the eternal narcissist because of her beauty. Why do
Speaker 1: I say that, Because if you look at the planetary symbols,
Speaker 1: Venus has the very interesting planetary sign of a hand
Speaker 1: mirror where she continues to look at her beauty. So
Speaker 1: take a look at Venus. Then it will slowly, during
Speaker 1: the next few months, start to move in closer to
Speaker 1: the Sun as it makes its way around the planetary
Speaker 1: orbit number two away from the Sun. And what's really
Speaker 1: interesting is that those planets, like I mentioned before, were
Speaker 1: too easy.
Speaker 2: Planets to see.
Speaker 1: But we also find out that in the morning sky
Speaker 1: there's Mars, there's Saturn. We'll talk about that in future
Speaker 1: editions of the Doctor Sky Experience. But here's some other
Speaker 1: interesting things that I wanted to mention. If you're fortunate enough,
Speaker 1: and you may already be going there, there'll be a
Speaker 1: total solar eclipse. Remember those. We haven't had a really
Speaker 1: good one here in the United States since August the
Speaker 1: eighth of twenty twenty four. And if you saw that,
Speaker 1: hopefully you're addicted to these total eclipses of the Sun.
Speaker 1: They're that interesting and they're that addictive for lucky observers.
Speaker 1: Starting off in Greenland, maybe not because it's so cold
Speaker 1: and cloudy, the panthertotality moves along across Iceland, and then
Speaker 1: it makes its way as it arcs across the ocean,
Speaker 1: it touches the nation of Spain. So in the late afternoon,
Speaker 1: people on the twelfth of August will get to see
Speaker 1: a short, but hopefully beautiful total eclipse of the Sun. Now,
Speaker 1: I save the best for last because less than a
Speaker 1: year from now, the longest total solar eclipse in our lifetime,
Speaker 1: that is, at least anywhere if you're one hundred years old,
Speaker 1: God bless you. August two, twenty seven, we get the
Speaker 1: longest total solar eclips Now, I'm gonna mention this, and
Speaker 1: I'll be doing this a lot to update you throughout.
Speaker 2: The next Doctor Sky updates.
Speaker 1: This particular event best seen in an area called Luxor
Speaker 1: in Egypt, the Valley of the Gods, the Great Pyramids.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine being like in an Indiana Jones kind.
Speaker 1: Of movie set, seeing these great pyramids, these great tributes
Speaker 1: to the Egyptian civilization, the mystery of the Pyramids, and
Speaker 1: also experiencing one of the greatest total solar eclipses, lasting
Speaker 1: well over six minutes. Now, just to be precise total
Speaker 1: solar eclipses, the maximum you can ever get is like
Speaker 1: some seven minutes and maybe a little over thirty seconds.
Speaker 1: So the eclipse that you'll see in Spain, if you're
Speaker 1: going there, will only be a couple of minutes. So
Speaker 1: mark your calendars if you feel that you want to
Speaker 1: go there. I'm sure by now, as of this report
Speaker 1: August twenty twenty six. Who knows, maybe the rooms are booked,
Speaker 1: but there's always hope if you'd like to see one
Speaker 1: of the greatest spectacles in nature. Believe me, I've seen
Speaker 1: seven and I'm fortunate that I have traveled to all
Speaker 1: of these. Yeah, it's not cheap, but it's a memory
Speaker 1: that'll last a lifetime. I don't forget a really good
Speaker 1: opportunity if you're not able to see that total eclipse
Speaker 1: of the Sun and travel and the Persian meteor shower
Speaker 1: as a prelude to the percy of meteor shower just
Speaker 1: around New moontime, remember the twelfth of August, before the
Speaker 1: meteors get under weigh. If in a clear sky look
Speaker 1: to the southern sky by around nine p m. You
Speaker 1: will not be disappointed. In a clear moonless sky, you'll
Speaker 1: be looking deep into the Milky Way. The constellation of Scorpius,
Speaker 1: the constellation Sagittarius, and the star clouds that lie there.
Speaker 1: Twenty seven thousand light years away is the core of
Speaker 1: our big Milky Way galaxy. Binoculars in hand, Yes, folks,
Speaker 1: even with the naked eye, you get to see these
Speaker 1: billions of stars and the star clouds of the Milky Way.
Speaker 1: My email drsky at wabcradio dot com. Now we do
Speaker 1: appreciate you, and I do look forward to explaining the
Speaker 1: wonders of the mysteries of the universe on the dartest
Speaker 1: guy experience here on this powerhouse blow torch signal. Why
Speaker 1: Talk Radio seventy seven WABC, well over one hundred years,
Speaker 1: with great hosts and ladies and gentlemen, an opportunity for
Speaker 1: you to partake in what I call our show, a
Speaker 1: theater of the mind where we love critical thinking and
Speaker 1: dialogue with you. Clear skies, good health, and always remember
Speaker 1: to keep your eyes to the skies.