The Sky This Month
Welcome to our night-time sky.
Please enjoy this month’s tidbits of
knowledge. We are lucky to live in
a dark-sky area where the heavens
can shine through. I hope you enjoy
the sky and perhaps learn a thing or
two. Happy star gazing!
A Star is Born – That’s what hap-
pens when you take a whole lot of
hydrogen and compress it together. When the gravita-
tional pressure is large enough, fusion begins and a star
is born. The hydrogen is fused into helium and releases a
tremendous amount of energy. When all of the hydrogen
is burned up, the star’s core contracts, heats up five times,
and begins to fuse helium into carbon. The massive en-
ergy created from the fusion greatly expands the star’s
outer layers. If the star is small, the helium burns out and
the star collapses into a white dwarf. If the star is larger,
the collapse will create a supernova and the remnants will
form a neutron star. If the star is really big, the carbon
will fuse into iron. When the carbon burns out, a super-
nova will occur and the remnants will form a black hole.
Our Sun is considered a small star and has burned through
about half of its hydrogen in the 4.5 billion years since it
ignited. In another five billion years, the Sun will enter
its helium burning stage. The expanding outer layers will
consume the Earth and once all of the helium is burned up,
the Sun will collapse into a white dwarf. So you better buy
a house today before it’s too late!
Perseus Brings Fire to the Sky – He didn’t invent fire –
that was Prometheus. However he did cut off the head of
Medusa, which is pretty nice. So, Perseus returns on the
evening of August 12 to shower us with meteors. Around
11:00 PM, the Perseus constellation will be popping above
the horizon in the northeast. Meteors will appear to origi-
nate out of Perseus, so look to the northeast to see them. If
all goes well, you should see about 1 meteor per minute.
Each shooting star will be traveling about 133,000 mph
when it hits our atmosphere, exploding into a trail of fire.
The evening should be nice and warm, so grab a lawn chair,
relax, and enjoy the show! For an added bonus, there is
no Moon to brighten the sky, so you should be able to see
more faint meteors! By the way, if you don’t know where
northeast is, face the setting sun. Now make a half turn to
your right – that should be close enough.
– Brian Biggs, Amateur Astronomer
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