AUGUST is the month of meteors! The annual Perseid meteor shower, sometimes known as The Tears of St Lawrence, can be seen. This more than makes up for the lack of planets on view this month.

August also sees the end of the Noctilucent Cloud season for this year.

Ursa Major, or the Plough, lies North West, with the W of Cassiopeia at about the same height in the North East.

If you look directly overhead you will see a bright blue/white star. This is Vega, the brightest star in the constellation of Lyra (the Lyre). Vega is the brightest member of the Summer Triangle of stars, the others being Deneb in Cygnus (the Swan) and Altair in Aquila (the Eagle).

Appearances can be deceptive. Vega is about 25 light years away; Altair about 15 light years away; Deneb, however, although it appears the faintest is about 1,500 light years distant! If Deneb was as close as Vega it would be like a search light in the sky!

Vega was once our North Star, but because the Earth wobbles very slowly the position of the North Star changes. It takes the Earth 26,000 years to wobble once. Vega will be the North Star again in about 12,000 years!

Antares, in Scorpio (the Scorpion) is the bright red star in the South now becoming much lower in the sky, while the autumn constellations are just beginning to appear in the East.

What’s up in the solar system?

The Planets in August

This is a poor month for planets. Only Saturn is still visible in the evening sky, low in the South West and setting around midnight. All the other bright planets are too close to the Sun to be seen.

Meteor Showers

The annual Perseid meteor shower will be seen on the night of August 12/13. On this night with a cloudless sky it might be possible to see around 60 meteors per hour. Meteors are often referred to as shooting stars. This term is misleading as shooting stars have nothing at all to do with stars. They are tiny grains of dust burning up as they enter the Earth’s atmosphere.

Meteors can be seen on any night of the year, but at certain times many meteors are seen and these are referred to as meteor showers. There are several meteor showers visible each year. They are caused by the debris left behind by a comet as it travels around the Sun. If the Earth happens to pass through this material then we see a meteor shower.

The Perseid meteor shower has a long history, having first been recorded by the Chinese in 36 AD. In 258 AD, a Christian called Lawrence promised the Roman emperor Valerian all the wealth of the Empire. Valerian thought he meant gold and silver, while Lawrence meant that the poor and sick people of the Empire were its wealth. Valerian took a dim view of this and had Lawrence roasted alive. The following night the Perseids came through exactly on schedule and people who saw this believed these were tears from heaven. Later Lawrence was made a Saint; hence the old name for the Perseids was The Tears of St Lawrence.

In 1535 the French explorer Jacques Cartier was exploring the land we now call Canada. In August of that year he arrived at a very large river. The Perseids were coming through as usual, and as Cartier knew the story, he called the river after St Lawrence.

Phases of the Moon for August

Last Quarter August 7, New Moon August 14, First Quarter August 22, Full Moon August 29,

The full moon this month is called the Sturgeon Moon. The sturgeon was considered a royal fish in medieval times as it was rare in British waters, so any that were caught had to be given to the King. August was the month when you might be lucky enough to catch one.

The next meeting of the Earby Astronomical Society will be at All Saints’ Church, Earby, tomorrow from 7.30pm to 9pm. The speaker will be Martin Lunn MBE FRAS and the title of the talk will be The Pluto Story.