Buresh Blog: Hot Temps... Perseid Meteor Shower... Night Skies... Fishin’!

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — We’re within a month of the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season. Read “Talking the Tropics With Mike” for daily updates.

Looking for a reprieve from our summer heat!?

The Perseid meteor shower peaks through the weekend of Aug. 12-13th. The Perseid meteors can appear anywhere in the sky. But perspective makes them seem to stream away from the shower’s “radiant” point near the border of Perseus and Cassiopeia.

Aug. 12–13 (all night): The annual Perseid meteor shower reaches maximum, and with no moonlight up to 1 meteor per minute might be seen from very dark locations. Fewer Perseids can be seen 1 or 2 nights before/after this date.

Rest of the night skies courtesy “Sky & Telescope”:

Aug. 9 (morning): Look east to see the Moon about 2° right of the Pleiades star cluster. Jupiter is to their upper right.

Aug. 10 (dusk): Mercury and Mars are 5° apart low in the west after sunset; find an unobstructed horizon and bring binoculars.

Aug. 12–13 (all night): The annual Perseid meteor shower reaches maximum, and with no moonlight up to 1 meteor per minute might be seen from very dark locations. Fewer Perseids can be seen 1 or 2 nights before/after this date.

Aug. 13 (morning): The thin lunar crescent forms a triangle in the east-northeast with Gemini’s Castor and Pollux.

Aug. 18 (dusk): The waxing crescent Moon and Mars are less than 1° apart low above the western horizon. Use binoculars.

Aug. 24 (evening): The first-quarter Moon occults (covers) Antares, the reddish heart of Scorpius, for much of the U.S. and those in western states can watch the star reappear before moonset.

Aug. 30 (evening): This night’s second full Moon during August is called a “blue Moon”. Saturn is nearby, 5° away.

Sep. 4 (evening): The waning gibbous Moon rises with Jupiter about 6° to its right.

Sep. 5 (evening): The Moon, one day before last quarter, trails the Pleiades by less than 5° as they rise.

Moon Phases

Full Moon August 1 2:32 p.m. EDT (Sturgeon Moon; Green Corn Moon)

Last Quarter August 8 6:28 a.m. EDT

New Moon August 16 5:38 a.m. EDT

First Quarter August 24 5:57 a.m. EDT

Full Moon August 30 9:36 p.m. EDT (Blue Moon, according to Sky & Telescope’s 1946 definition)

So I spent the last couple weeks on a very special trip with my dad - fishin’. Dad has been going on an annual fishing trip to Canada for years & has always wanted me to go along. But the trip is always in the middle of the hurricane season, so there was little chance I could go out of the country without being able to be called back for a storm. But I was granted that opportunity this year after 21 hurricane seasons in Jacksonville. Totally unplugged at Plaisted Camp in the subarctic of Northern Saskatchewan was very good for the soul :)