~ St. Maarten’s Backyard Astronomy for August 16 - 18 ~
Sun rises at 5:55am
Sun sets at 6:36pm
Lunar phase: 2nd quarter, waxing gibbous
Moon sets at 3:25am
Moon rises at 5:12pm
This weekend, our moon is nearly full – catch the truly full moon on Monday night. This month’s moon is called the Sturgeon Moon, so those fisher-folk might just get lucky as they tip their lines into a moonlit body of water. The brightness of the full moon will perhaps wash out the dimmer stars this weekend, and it will also challenge any effort to locate some of the lingering Perseid Meteor Shower streaks. So, let’s enjoy the moonlight and a few of the brighter celestial objects that you can find.
You’ll find Saturn rising about 8:00pm on Saturday night from the eastern horizon and it will follow the moon across the sky throughout the night. Jupiter and Mars are still in conjunction, meaning they are very close together from our earthbound perspective. They will rise from the east around 1:30am. The pair sits this weekend between the horns of the bull, in the constellation Taurus.
This is a great weekend to get out your backyard telescope or a good pair of binoculars, and check out those planets and the moon. A good target for your scopes is the moon’s terminus, or the light that separates the dark side from the lit-up side of the moon. This edge of the light offers you a chance to see the surface features of the moon. The relief of the mountains, craters and lava flows that can be visually detected on the moon’s lunar surface.
Your scope will also be useful to look at Saturn and Jupiter. These planets have much to discover with a bit of magnification. The famed rings of Saturn are visible and Jupiter’s banded atmosphere and its four biggest moons can be seen easily.
If you still have your solar eclipse glasses, use them to look at the sun this weekend; there are two visible sun spots that can be seen without any magnification. Do not look at the sun without those protective glasses, though. Regular sunglasses and other eye shades won’t protect your eyes from serious damage, and for sure do not use any binoculars or telescope to view the sun. Take care and err on the side of safety, please.
Enjoy the sturgeon moon and its mystery this weekend and early into next week, and we will catch up for another instalment of “Looking up at the Night Sky” next Friday in The Daily Herald’s Weekender.
Thank you for keeping up with the Night Sky articles, backyard astronomy designed for St. Maarten sky viewing. FYI: If you are out later on in the week, note that each star rises about four minutes earlier each day than written here, and the moon rises 50 minutes later. Night Sky is researched and compiled by Lisa Davis-Burnett. Earthsky.org is a key resource for information and images. Questions or comments? Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
