Eclipse, meteors grace August skies
Excitement grows as the two most anticipated celestial events of the year are set to dazzle August skies. A stunning solar eclipse and the annul Perseid meteor shower along with a parade of planets promise to put on quite a sky show for onlookers.
With so many folks on holidays this month, the perfect celestial fireworks show, the Perseid meteor shower, has become an evening ritual for families every mid-August. At the same time every year, like clockwork, the Earth slams into a cloud of debris left behind by an ancient comet. Particles the size of a grain of sand hit the atmosphere at such speeds that they burn up within a fraction of a second as they race across the sky. To observers they appear as a streak of light we call a meteor or a shooting star.
This iconic meteor shower officially peaks mid-day on Aug. 12 at 11 p.m. EDT, so for Canadians the best time to watch will be overnight period of both Monday and Tuesday. However, adding to the mix this year will be the threequarter full moon’s bright glare dominating both evenings. So for seeing the very most number of shooting stars, it is likely that the pre-dawn hours, when the moon has set in the west, will be the best time for observing the shower.
But for those that just can’t get up that early, the good news is that despite the lunar glare, the Perseids are also known to produce many bright fireballs visible from anywhere. These are baseball- to basketball-sized stones that burn up in the high atmosphere with usually bright intensity. With your backs turned to the moon, from a dark location away from city lights, you can expect to see at least one shooting star every few minutes.
Remember that the best way to see the shower is with just your eyes without binoculars or telescope. The human eye is perfectly adapted as a wide-angle lens that can capture the shooting star as they race across large tracts of the overhead skies.
But the granddaddy of all astronomical events will occur on Aug. 21, when a solar eclipse will plunge many cities across the United States into darkness during the middle of the day. Along a 100-kilometre-wide corridor sweeping from Oregon through South Carolina and 12 states in between, the entire disk of the sun will appear to be completely covered during the mid-eclipse lasting more than two minutes at each location.
Here in Canada we will get to witness a deep partial eclipse — where part of the sun will be covered by the moon. For southern Quebec, including the Montreal region, as much as 58 per cent of the sun’s disk will be covered at maximum eclipse time at 2:38 p.m. The moon will first kiss the edge of the sun at 1:21 p.m. and entirely leave the solar disk at 3:50 p.m. EDT.
Here in the Montreal region, we’ll see an even deeper partial solar eclipse on June 10, 2021, and have our chance to see a total solar eclipse in April 8, 2024, when the path of totality will run over southern Quebec.
It’s important to remember to never directly view the sun with unaided eyes or without using certified solar glasses (NOT sunglasses) or solar filter equipped binoculars or telescopes; otherwise you risk permanently damaging your eyes.
There is still time to order safe and certified solar glasses online from reputable dealers. One such non-profit organization is astronomerswithoutborders.org, where all proceeds go to support global science outreach programs.
Astronomy clubs across Canada will be holding eclipse-viewing parties with telescopes outfitted with safe solar filters and eclipse glasses for the public. In Montreal, the Rio Tinto planetarium will be hosting a viewing event, while the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada will be setting up for the public at John Abbott College in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue on Aug. 21.
Let’s cross our fingers for clear skies! For more skywatching news visit me on facebook.com/thenightskyguy.