Saturn At Its Best As ‘Sturgeon Moon’ Shines And Perseids Pop: What To See In The Night Sky This Week

Science Saturn At Its Best As ‘Sturgeon Moon’ Shines And Perseids Pop: What To See In The Night Sky This Week Jamie Carter Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I inspire people to go stargazing, watch the Moon, enjoy the night sky New! Follow this author to improve your content experience. Got it! Aug 7, 2022, 08:00pm EDT | Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Saturn is seen backlit by the sun, sent Cassini spacecraft July 19, 2013 in space.

NASA unveiled the . . .

[+] e image, that spans 404,880 miles (651,591 kilometers) across, November 12, 2013. Besides the rings, three planets, Mars, Venus and Earth, are visible in the image. (Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI via Getty Images) Getty Images Each Monday I pick out the northern hemisphere’s celestial highlights (mid-northern latitudes) for the week ahead, but be sure to check my main feed for more in-depth articles on stargazing, astronomy, eclipses and more.

What To Watch For In The Night Sky This Week: August 8-14, 2022 This week would normally be about getting somewhere as dark as possible to enjoy the year’s most famous meteor shower. However, the Moon has other ideas in 2022. The full “Sturgeon Moon” will rise almost exactly as the Perseid meteor shower peaks, meaning its 100 also shooting stars are likely to be virtually invisible to most stargazers.

However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to see some of the brightest meteors after you’ve watched the “Sturgeon Moon” appear on the eastern horizon at dusk. As a way of apology, the solar system delivers us Saturn as its biggest, brightest and best as the ringed planet goes into opposition later this week. The full sturgeon moon rises at Mattress Firm Amphitheatre prior to Lady Antebellum and Darius .

. . [+] Rucker performing on August 25, 2018 in Chula Vista, California.

(Photo by Daniel Knighton/Getty Images) Getty Images Friday, August 12, 2022: A Full ‘Sturgeon Moon’ Today our satellite turns full, bringing the chance to see a beautiful orangey moon rise above the eastern horizon close to sunset. August’s full Moon has the traditional name of the “Sturgeon Moon” in North America because is the time of year that the fish were caught in the Great Lakes. MORE FOR YOU New Research Finds A Connection Between Domestic Violence And These Two Personality Disorders This Scientist Helps Andean Forests And Ecuador’s Women In STEM Exceptional Fossil Preservation Suggests That Discovering Dinosaur DNA May Not Be Impossible However, that’s an extremely geographically narrow name for a global event and I see no reason for most of North America, let alone the rest of the world, to call it that.

Other much better names for August’s full Moon include the “Barley Moon,” “Fruit Moon,” “Grain Moon,” “Corn Moon” and “Lightning Moon. ” A meteor from the 2016 Perseid meteor shower streaks across the night sky above some pine trees in . .

. [+] the Cleveland National Forest. Mount Laguna, San Diego County, California.

USA getty Saturday, August 13, 2022: Perseid meteor shower Typically a highlight of the annual stargazing calendar, strong moonlight will ruin this year’s Perseid meteor shower, with its 100 or so “shooting stars” per hour likely to be very tricky to see thanks to a just-past-full Moon—though if you’re out stargazing just before midnight tonight and into the early hours of tomorrow morning then you may see some particularly bright bolides. The Perseid meteor shower is caused by dust and debris being left in the inner Solar System by Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. Sunday, August 14, 2022: Moon and Neptune, Saturn at opposition Tonight a 98%-lit waning gibbous moon will rise later at night close to Neptune.

However, you’ll have a job finding the eighth planet without a pair of binoculars. Meanwhile, if you look to the eastern sky before the Moon rises you’ll see the planet Saturn shining relatively brightly. In fact, the ringed planet is tonight at its brightest and biggest of the entire year.

That’s because our planet is between the Earth and Saturn, an annual occasion that astronomers call opposition . Saturn will rise at in the east at dusk and set in the west. This image showing Saturn with six of its moons was taken on 26 January 2006 at 22:11 hrs UT using a .

. . [+] webcam attached to a 14-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope.

The moons are from left to right: Titan, Mimas,Tethys, Rhea, Enceladus and Dione. Photograph by Jamie Cooper. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images) SSPL via Getty Images Object of the week: Saturn at opposition Saturn’s opposition occurs when Earth passes between it and the Sun on its own, faster, journey around the Sun.

As a consequence of that geometry, Saturn’s disk will be entirely illuminated, as seen from the Earth. So Saturn will look at its biggest and brightest and best for all of 2022. The position of Saturn will change throughout the night; it will move higher in the sky, though from mid-latitudes of the northern hemisphere it never gets particularly high, and it will remain relatively low in the southern night sky.

You’ll need any small telescope to see its rings. This year Saturn’s northern hemisphere is tipped towards the Earth in 2022, so you’ll get a relatively closed view of its rings. However, to see Saturn’s rings through a telescope is still perhaps the most impressive sight of all to anyone starting out in stargazing, planet-spotting and astronomy.

They’re particularly bright in the few days around opposition, so it’s worth making the effort. Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes. Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn .

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