Hello! This is Karl Hricko of United Astronomy Clubs of NJ bringing you the August Astronomy Update for the WNTI listening area.

In the cold chill of a December morning, Judge Wheeler spotted a ball of fire in the Connecticut skies. Moments later, there was a loud explosive sound, as a rock bounced off a nearby building and fell to the ground. The Judge contacted two scientists from Yale who concluded that the stone was one of many that must have fallen from the sky. The news traveled to President Thomas Jefferson, who was alleged to have said, “I would more easily believe that two Yankee professors would lie than that stones would fall from heaven”.

Well, the stones did fall from heaven. They were the result of a meteor that exploded over Weston, Connecticut on December 14, 1807. Objects made of rock and metal do in fact, fall form the sky in the form of meteors.

In connection with this, a comet was discovered by Swift and Tuttle in 1862. Later, the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli observed that the orbit of the Swift-Tuttle Comet coincided with the orbit of the Perseid meteor shower. From that, he postulated that the Perseids were made of debris from that Comet.

This month, we’ll have a chance to see the Perseids meteor shower. The high point of this shower will occur after 1 a.m. on the 12th of this month. Besides the meteor shower, Mars, Saturn, Venus and Mercury will be aligning in a row in that same order. On the 12th and 13th, Saturn and Venus will be close enough so as to appear as one object. In the meantime, Jupiter is still to the upper left of Sagittarius, low in the southern sky.

So this month, get outside on the 12th and see the Perseids; and the close visual encounter of Venus and Saturn.