Meteor showers And Asteroids
August 11th 2011 00:18
Category: Planets
Close up image of Vesta taken by the Dawn spacecraft
Meteor showers are a welcome sight in any night sky.The Perseid shower will reach its peak on August 14th.
Only the brightest meteors will be seen at this time as the Moon fill
the night sky the entire evening.
The summer evenings are a great time to look for meteors whizzing across the night sky.
After sunset the bright star Arcturus will make an appearance. The Big Dipper can be seen looking towards the north west.
Asteroid Vesta well brighten enough to be seen with a pair of binoculars shining at magnitude 5.7 in constellation of Capricornus.
(Don’t expect to see bright shiny objects at best the asteroids will
show up as points of light)
Vesta, is just past opposition this week, shining at magnitude 5.7 in Capricornus.It's an easy find in binoculars in late evening and can be seen with the unaided eye from a dark site once the Moon sets.Asteroid Ceres makes its way farther east in the constellation of Cetus.
Martian "moon
Note the similarities between Vesta and Phobos both have similar long groves on the surface.
Ceres won’t be as bright as Vesta.NASA’s space probe Dawn is sending back high resolution images of Vesta and will continue to orbit the asteroid for one year before making its way to asteroid Ceres.
Saturn can be seen low in the sky look towards the south west at around 7:20 local time.
saturn
The image shows Saturn with Haumea and Makemake in the background.
Haumea is the 4th largest minor planet in our Solar System
Makemake is also a minor planet both are Kuiper belt objects.
( Haumea and Makemake can not be seen without the aid of a telescope)
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