They are the highlight of every shooting star fan in summer: the Perseid meteor shower. As in every year, this August. We explain what you can see in the starry sky this month.
August is known as the shooting star month. It owes its reputation mainly to the Perseid meteor shower, whose maximum activity is expected from August 9th to 13th. Bright meteors, so-called bolides or fireballs are not uncommon. The peak of shooting star activity is predicted on the night of the 12th to 13th, with up to a hundred shooting stars expected. This year, bright moonlight interferes with observations. The best viewing time is from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m.
The meteors of the Perseid stream are fast moving objects. They penetrate the earth’s atmosphere at around 60 kilometers per second, which corresponds to 216,000 kilometers per hour. The Perseids are caused by a cloud of debris from Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, which encounters Earth every year as it orbits the Sun.
The shimmering ribbon of the summer Milky Way stretches high across the firmament. To see it you need a dark night sky. The delicately glowing band of the Milky Way, made up of thousands upon thousands of glittering stars, is a natural phenomenon that one rarely sees in our time.
The full moon occurs at 3:36 am on August 12th. Barely two days earlier, the Moon comes near to Earth, only 359,828 kilometers separating it from us, while remaining 405,418 kilometers distant on the 22nd.
A little north, i.e. above the full moon, Saturn shines, which is exactly opposite the sun on the 14th. Like the full moon, Saturn can be seen throughout the night. Both stars rise in the east when the sun sinks below the horizon in the west, reach their highest position in the south at midnight and set in the west in the morning. Since the Moon and Saturn are opposite the Sun as seen from Earth, one speaks of the opposition position or simply of opposition to the Sun.
Now is the best time to watch the ringed planet, because it’s only 1,325 million kilometers from Earth. This corresponds to almost nine times the distance between earth and sun. Light travels this distance in one hour and 14 minutes. Saturn is the second largest planet in our solar system. Its diameter is ten times larger than that of the terrestrial globe. As a result of its rapid rotation, Saturn is severely flattened. A Saturn day lasts only ten and a half hours. Saturn’s ring system cannot be seen with the naked eye. For those who have never seen Saturn’s rings with their own eyes, this is a great opportunity to observe the ring system. You need a telescope with at least 30x magnification. A visit to an observatory is also worthwhile to see Saturn’s ring.
Julian Nagelsmann comments for the first time on his relationship with the “Bild” reporter Lena Wurzenberger and why the FC Bayern coach sees no problems in his daily work.
The Bundesliga season started – as usual – with a singing interlude. This year Carolin Niemczyk sang the German national anthem – and was whistled at from the stadium.
Today, August 5th, is World Beer Day. But which types of beer are searched for most frequently by Germans on the Internet?
Cowboys in the Wild West couldn’t have done it any better. Two stubborn people “due” in Ludwigshafen on Friday: the two drivers stared at each other for around half an hour – until the police arrived.
