We had a nice turn out for the Perseid meteor shower at Raven Hill
Science and Discovery Center with dozens of people lined up to look
through the telescope. Jupiter started the show during daylight
showing its oval disk and 3 moons which moved over the next couple
hours and then a 4th moon popped out from behind Jupiter to
everyone's delight.
I began my talk about how the Perseid meteor shower comes to us each
August by explaining how the Earth in its orbit around the sun
intercepts the orbit of Comet Swift-Tuttle every August 12th and how
it is the dust debris from that comet left in its orbit that enters
swiftly into our atmosphere to light up our sky as meteors.
Over the course of the evening the crowd was excited to see various
celestial sights through the 16" telescope including two great
Globular Clusters M13 and M22, the great Andromeda Galaxy M31 and two
of its satellite galaxies M32 and M110, the Swan nebula, the Perseus
double galactic cluster, Albiereo the orange and violet double star
in Cygnus.
I used the green laser to point out many of the prominent summer
constellations naming the brighter stars and explaining why Polaris
never appears to move in our northern sky.
We were also treated to the sight of several satellites sailing
through the night sky including the International Space Station with
the space shuttle Endeavour attached to it.
While everyone enjoyed the various heavenly views through the
telescope it was the Perseid meteors that gave great cause for the
crowds many OOOOOHS and AHHHHHHHHHHHs as many meteors lit the night
with their brilliant white streaks including at least one fireball
that lit the entire sky with its brightness leaving a white
filamentous train behind that lasted many seconds.
I would like to thank the staff at Raven Hill, especially Glen and
Nancy and Katie for hosting this wonderful event.