THE SKY THIS AUGUST: METEOR SHOWER AWAITS; EUROPE TO SEE ECLIPSE

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." --Albert Einstein

This month we must say goodbye to an old friend. Venus has graced our evening skies since the first of the year. I will miss that sulfuric acid drenched world with a temperature of 700 degrees! But all good things must come to an end.

This month Venus swings around its orbit between the Earth and the Sun thus leaving the evening sky but re-emerging a few weeks later as a morning "star." Mars is still around in the southwest glowing like a ruby while nearby is the red star Antares (the heart

Europe will enjoy a total eclipse of the Sun on the 11th. The Southeast marching Eagles will be in England then. While London will see a 97 percent eclipse, they should take the day off and drive down just north of Paris where they could see a total eclipse.

I hear there is nothing like it.

People in the extreme northern New England states will get to see an 80 percent eclipse at sunrise.

Here in the midwest, we will not see a thing.

In the morning hours of the 12th and 13th the annual Perseid meteor shower will occur. While normally you can expect to see about one good meteor per hour, during the shower you can expect to see one per minute. There will be a new Moon on those dates and so it should not interfere. The best time to observe is after midnight till dawn.

Meteor showers occur when the Earth slams into a swarm of dust particles left behind by old comets. The Perseid shower owes its existence to the comet Swift-Tuttle.

As they enter the Earth's atmosphere at over 40 miles per second, they heat the atmosphere up so much it glows producing the characteristic "streak" of light. I am pleased to say they are not falling stars. Watch for a prolonged after-glow of the trails as they have been known to last several minutes.

When you are up looking at the meteor shower, you will notice a very bright object high in the south. This is the planet Jupiter and the fainter yellowish one near it is the planet Saturn. They both will make a better evening showing later this year in October. You will also notice your favorite winter constellations like Orion high in the southeast.

I usually get lots of questions from people wanting to know about the "meaning" of the constellations and what their current day significance is. They are usually disappointed to find out that modern day astronomers place little or no emphasis on the constellations. They still use them like street addresses as a leftover from days gone by.

Almost all of the stars in a given constellation are not related at all and are actually separated by great distances. We happen to see this two dimensionally. It looks like we will have a good opportunity on the early morning hours on the August 2nd at 4:41 a.m. It will rise in the WNW and set in the NE.

It will be a bright, non-blinking, "star" and will take about 4 minutes to go from horizon to horizon. Wave when it goes over, they might be taking your picture.