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Dan's Starry Skies by Dan Caton
Latest Update: August 12, 2010
Planets grouped toward the west about 9pm, Aug. 6
We amend our month's planet description to add the Perseid meteors that may be visible, weather permitting over the nights of 8/12 - 8/15 or so. At peak on the night of 8/12-13 there may be up to 90 meteors per hour, and that rate drops by successive factors of two every couple of days. Find a dark spot and just watch the sky!
The chart below shows the direction of the meteors from the radiant point in Perseus. The chart is for midnight.
Planets bracket our night this month. At dusk, Mercury is almost setting toward the west. Nearby is the triad of Mars, Saturn and Venus, about 15 degrees above the horizon (that's about one and a half fist-widths at arm's length.
At dawn, Jupiter is about half way up the sky in the south-southwest.
Jupiter at dawn, about half way up the sky in the SSW
The sky at midnight, showing typical paths of Perseid meteors
