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And good afternoon, everyone. I'm just going to share my screen with you.
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So hopefully everyone can see that rather a boring title slide, I'm afraid. Get to know the summer sky.
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Well, yes, summer and perhaps what's going on in this country at the moment don't really go sort of hand in hand.
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But you never know things should change and there has been a few sort of clear nights. Recently, so fingers crossed, and I'll be able to point out to you this afternoon, some of the things that you might be able to see in the summer sky.
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So I'm going to look at the main constellations on view.
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And you can, you know, see various lie and perhaps a bit of mythology behind these. And we're also, again, this is weather permitting, get some tips on how to observe a good meteor shower.
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So that's what I proposed to do this afternoon. Now the good news is from the astronomy point of view is that the nights are getting longer.
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Because on the first of August, which was what yes, no, Tuesday wasn't hit. Okay.
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These are times from Leicester, but they're not going to vary too much over the, UK.
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Sunrise was at 5 23 sunset, 2057 giving us over 15 and a half hours of daylight.
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But by the end of the month sunrises after 60'clock sunset is just before 80'clock and the amount of daylight has been reduced to about 14 and 3 quarters hours.
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And then of course in September it'll be the solstice round about the third week in September.
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So, said from the astronomy point of view, things are looking up because the nights are getting longer.
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But if you're still after your nice long days of summer, maybe it's not such good news.
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Now let's just start off with the moon. And the moon is always a fascinating object to look at through binoculars or a small telescope.
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And even with the unaided I, you can start to identify some of the features on here. You can get lots of maps.
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This off the internet. Showing the disc of the moon with the dark areas the maria so-called seas which of course you know not seize their lava hate planes in filled impact craters on the moon, but you can start to learn the names of some of these and I suppose the one that people are most interested in is the C of Tranquility, the MAHRE,
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tranquillity artist, and it's that one there. Okay. Now at the moment we've just passed full moon so that's virtually the view you'll get of the moon if you look at it the moment and if you've got some binoculars you should be able to identify at least a couple of the brighter craters on the moon.
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One of them is this one, That's the pole, southern area. And that's a very bright take crater called Tyco.
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And Tyco has got these rays emanating off it that go for hundreds of kilometers across the lunar landscape and these white rays are streaks that were formed when bit of space rock, large piece of space rock impacted on the moon.
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And the material underneath was this much paler color than the outer layers. So that's Tyco.
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And there's also this crater here, Copernicus, which again you should be able to see and you know both of those at the moment but get yourself if you're interested in me get yourself a chat like this sent from the internet or book Only phone even when you go outside and start start to learn some of the C's.
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Now, there's been a lot in the press recently about The
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Because this month August The first of August was a full known. And the 30 first of August at the end of the month is another full move and these are well sort of special formats that what we call Perry G.
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Falms because Perigee is the point in the moon's orbit where it's closest to Earth.
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I'm just going to advance the slide a bit. I'll come back to that slide again in a minute.
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But obviously there's a somewhat exaggerated view of the moon's orbit around the Earth. It's elliptical.
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So the distance varies. So this is sort of perjy when it's at the closest point.
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And the other point is, when it said it's furthest point. And in August the 2 new moons occur when the moons are Not exactly at the perity point, but it's a you know, pretty close to the earth.
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And there's a lot going on about this in the press at the moment. Because we're getting what we called a super moon because, because the means closer to us, it does appear to be somewhat bigger and brighter.
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I must tell you that Super Moon has got no precise astronomical definition. It's the term that just seems to have gone into, everyday English.
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But I mean, if you are interested in these things, and what an astronomer would call this, is a perji, sizzy,y events or a perjury full moment.
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But, anyway, we'll stick with suprem in because everyone knows what we're talking about.
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But the other term you're going to hear a lot about. Towards the end of the month is Blue Moon.
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Now, in everyday English, we talk about, you know, something occurring in a blue, is something that doesn't occur very often.
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And again, I don't think Blue Moon has got a precise astronomical definition. But nowadays it's taken as meaning the second full moon in a calendar month.
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So here, first of all, just. 30 first August. So the moon, full moon on the 30 first of August will be a blue moon.
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So there's the diagram again. Just to show you this difference in size, probably to the casual observer.
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It's probably not too sort of recognizable. This difference when we get a full moon at perj, this close point and apogee when it's furthest away.
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But if you, you know, take photographs under similar conditions, it turns out that the perj, full moon, so the one we're experiencing, this month.
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Is about 14% bigger than an apogee full moon. But remember the full moon is still pretty bright.
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You know, to say a casual observer, it's probably not going to appear too different.
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Now let's just have a look at, this, oh, you know, full sky chart.
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And this is 11 pm at the start of August. And, you can see, well, it's a bit boring really from the planet's point of view.
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Because the only planets that will be on view And, you know, when it gets dark tonight is the planet, which is down there.
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And I mean, Saturn, which is down there. And I mean, Saturn's got a wonderful set of rings, as you know, it's not a particularly bright planet.
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You know, we've been spoiled over the last few months with Venus and Jupiter, but don't worry, they'll be back.
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The only thing I would say is that the area of the sky where Saturn is at the moment.
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It's against these rather faint this fake constellation of Aquarius. And Saturn will be brighter than any of those background stars.
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But I'll say a bit more about Sutton in a minute, okay? Yes, in fact, I'll say it now.
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Because Saturn reaches what we call opposition. On the 20 seventh of August. Now, what do we mean by opposition?
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Well, it's a term that, and ignore these other terms here. This is the one I'm interested in. Opposition.
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There's the sun. There's the Earth. And there is our planet at opposition. And only planets that are further from the sun than the Earth is, can reach opposition.
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So that means that Mercury and Venus can't. Because when a planet like Saturn is at opposition then the sun, the earth and the moon have got this sort of exact you know, 3 body lineup.
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And it means that the sun and the planet are opposite each other in the sky as seen from the earth.
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So what it means is that our planet rises as the sun sets. It's above the, horizon for all the hours of darkness.
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And it means that our planet sets as the sun rises the following morning. So it really is the best time to observe.
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A planet that's further from the earth and the sun because the planet is above the horizon visible but all over all the hours of darkness now that doesn't mean that you're only going to get good views of Saturn on the 20 seventh August, you know, that's not true, but you know in the weeks leading up to opposition and the weeks afterwards, then it will be a good time to look for
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Saturn. And just out of interest, Jupiter is going to be in the same position on the third of November.
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And we'll see in a minute if you wanted to see jupiter now where you could look for it okay So that's some Saturn.
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On the 20 seventh of August. Now, this was a picture. I got off a website called space weather.
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Dot com that was taken 2 or 3 days ago of Saturn. But obviously this is a telescopic view.
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And you do need a telescope to see the rings of Saturn. And, you know, so at the moment getting nice views of the planet itself and, the rings.
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And that's not really going to change month over over the next few months. Now, if you think, well, I want to see, Saturn's rings, but I don't have a telescope.
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Why not get in touch with your local astronomical society? Because I'm sure that they will have them observing sessions whereby and they'd be more than happy to show you, Saturn through their telescopes.
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There's nothing more an amateur astronomer likes. Then, you know, inviting someone to look through that telescope and being wild by the image.
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What about the other planets? Well, Mercury really forget it at the moment, but in late, mid to late September.
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Prepared to get up, and, you can get a good view in the morning before sunrise.
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Venus has been absolutely. In the evening sky, that very bright object that there, but it's effectively disappeared from the evening sky now.
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However, by September, again, in the evening sky now, but it's effectively disappeared from the evening sky now.
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However, by September, again, in the morning sky, look before sunrise and it'll be there bright and Mars has disappeared into the morning sky look before sunrise and it'll be they're bright and.
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However, by September, again, in the morning sky look before sunrise and it'll be there bright and Mars has disappeared into the twilight and you're not really going to get any decent views of miles until next year.
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So we won't say anything else about that. But, this business about September and Mercury and Venus.
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I'm just going to show you a chart. This is about the third week in September.
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About 5 am. Now this is looking over towards the east. So, you know, some. Will be rising fairly soon.
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But there, you will get Mercury and Venus. Venus again will be spectacularly bright.
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Mercury is also bright, but the problem with mercury is it's always sort of fairly low down.
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But I think in this time in September it's going to reach about the highest position in the sky.
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It can get. So again, I think if you know you're interested in looking for this.
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Look on, various websites. Later on if you've got an app on your phone, it'll tell you exactly where to look for it, okay?
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So, but anyway, you know, come, you know, say third week in September. Oh, we've now got the chance to see 3 planets, Mercury, Venus and Jupiter.
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Jupiter will be bright, very bright, Venus will be even brighter, but Mercury is, it is quite bright.
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But, you know, it's, it's always fairly low down. Use binoculars to find it.
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But of course, if the sun has risen, you must not use those binoculars.
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Now, what else is coming up? Well, the, meet your shower. Now, again, I think this going to be quite a bit about this in the press over the next week or so and they will almost certainly mention it on the weather forecast.
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So we're going to have a look at that. Again, to save, you know, watch what part of the sky and when and what time you can look for it.
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And this is a photograph that was taken. Well, I think this was taken from California. I got this off the space weather website, but it's a very bright meteor or shooting star if you like leaving a trail.
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So, no, so with the If you go out and look at the sky, you know, you're out there for any length of time, you're unlucky not to see a shooting star or meteor.
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And of course they're not stars. It's a minute speck of dust. A cosmic material called a meteoroid.
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Which well, say, burns up. That's the term that's often used. It really vaporizing.
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Doing its passage through the Earth's atmosphere and it produces a streak of light that we call a meteor.
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And as I said, you go out on any night. Then you'd be unlocking not to see one if you're out there for some length of time.
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But at certain times of the year, we see more of these. And this is what we call a meteor shower, which is what I'm going to talk about.
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But let's just clarify something, first of all. These terms that astronomers use meteoroid, meteor, meteorite.
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Because often hear people they say to me oh I saw a bright meteorite through the sky last night sorry you didn't But hopefully, after a minute or so, you'll see why that statement is wrong.
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It's the trouble these words, they, you know, look pretty similar but they are.
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They are different to phenomena, but if you like the origin is the same. Now, a meteoroid, it's a small rocky on the metallic body in space.
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You know, can be as small as a, you know, brain of dust up to, you know, they say about a meter wide, something like that.
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But they are bodies that are actually in space, okay? And you can also get micro meteoroids which are really tiny.
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Pieces of space dust and often find that some spacecraft, you know, collide with these.
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The James Webb telescope, and soon after it was, in operation a number of micro meteoroids crashed into the, the mirror.
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And produce tiny little dense so we're well aware of that okay so a meteoroid is one of these.
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Objects when it's still in space. Now, if our meteoroid gets close enough to the Earth, says it enters into the atmosphere, it begins to bake price or burn up, okay, and fall to the ground and the trail it produces, that's the meteor, the shooting style.
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Now, the meteorite. If the meteoroid rock doesn't completely burn up as it falls to Earth.
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Then the rock that's left behind is called a meteorite. So our meteorite would probably have to be you know fairly large.
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For you know the pieces to survive. And you know going to probably any you know museum in this country.
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Then you might find that it's got a collection of meeting rights. In the Leicestershire area that's famous for the bar well meteorite.
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But more recently, I think during lockdown, there was, a meteorite that fell on Winchcombe in Gloucestershire.
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And this is really exciting because it seems to be a very sort of primeval type of meteorite and there's lots of studies going on on that.
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But if you go to the Natural History Museum in London, again, they've got a good meteorite collection there.
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That's the wrong. Okay. The differences between those terms. So we're going to be talking about the person of meteor shower and this reaches the height of its activity in mid August.
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And this year, the Percy of Meteor shower, the peak of it, so when you're likely to see the greatest number of meteors.
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Because in the early hours of the morning of Sunday the thirteenth of August. That's not this coming Sunday.
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So Sunday after. So that means that the nights of the twelfth of the thirteenth, so Saturday 12 to Sunday the thirteenth.
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You know the following Sunday the thirteenth to and the night of that to the early hours of Monday the fourteenth.
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You know, get out there and have a look because, where we've already commented on the weather in this country.
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You know you just have to take your chance. And it also means that you don't get exclusively on those.
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A bit earlier on, you know, the tenth to the eleventh or later on the fifteenth, the sixteenth, get out there and look.
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But because you should be able to see something. Now, the other good news this year is that the moon won't interfere.
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Cause sometimes with the, it's a full moon and that drums out all but the brightest.
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So things are looking good this year. Moonlight won't interfere because there's a last quarter phase on the eighth of August.
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And a new moon on the sixteenth. So what do we mean by last quarter? Well, it's this shape moon.
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Okay, so this is the. Moon that will you know, rise, you know, after, you know, midnight.
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And you know it's only half the moon there so But that's not going to worry us.
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Now what causes a meteor shower? Well, a meet your shower, because when the earth passes through the dust that spread out, from the debris trail that's left by a comet as it orbits the sun.
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And the particular comet that gives rise to the Percy of meteors. Is that, well, 1 9 P.
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Swift Tuttle. P means it's a periodic comet so it's a comment that's been, you know, we've been observing it, being around the sun a number of times.
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And 109 is just 109 on the list. Swift and Tuttle are the 2 people who discovered it.
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And, time it just represents when we're in the densest part of the dust string and I'll have a slide for that in a minute, okay?
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And the actual peak, you know, can vary the time that can vary a bit. But, you know, I think we're gonna be good for the early hours of Sunday thirteenth.
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Now, one of the term that's used is Radiant. Because if you were to sit outside with a style chart and every time you saw a meteor you drew something on your star chart.
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Then you see something like that, okay? You get these trails of the And if you sort of dotted all these lines back.
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You'd find they'd intersect at the same point. And this point is called the radiant.
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So the radiant is the point in space. From which all the, appeared to originate here to emanate.
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And the name of the shower. Takes its name from the constellation in which the radiant appears.
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So we know that the, meteors, that radiant is in the constellation of. Yes, yes.
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And this is perhaps a better chart. So you need to look northeast and you can start looking. As soon as it gets dark, so look northeast.
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And I'm sure most people are familiar with the W shape of the constellation of Cassia Pear.
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Well, look beneath that and then you've got Perseus there.
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Like that, and you'll also see just sort of coming down like that. A very bright star called Capella.
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It'll be low down early on as you start observing. But as the time goes on, capella and in fact all the other styles will rise higher in the sky.
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So that's how you can find it. And then just look down. And then I'll see it again.
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Well, I can't guarantee you're gonna see anything like that, but. Yes. Just going back to this idea about the comet, the parent comment is called Swift Tuttle.
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And the orbital period of this is 133 years and the comic was discovered independently by 2 American astronomers, you see 3 days apart, 1862, July sixteenth and July the nineteenth, Lewis Swift and Horace Parnell Tuttle.
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And Lewis Swift, well he was a busy man. They discovered 13 comets and numerous and he discovered his last comic when he was aged 79.
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And he was one of the few people to see Halle's Comet. At 2 of its appearances, 76 years apart.
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So that means he would have seen it at the 1910 appearance. So that was 3 years before he died.
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And I'll let you work out when the other one was you can take 76 from 19.
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Let's see. Tuttle and he was a US astronomer and we've got quite a distinguished, and we've got quite a distinguished, military and a naval career and he fought in the American, military and naval career and he fought in the American Civil War.
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No, let's just, look at this. Okay, so. This here, well, there's the Earth's orbit around the Sun.
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And this is the dust trail that's left by a comet. Comets have very elliptical orbits like that.
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And you know they pass around the sun numerous times they shed dust material and this spreads out over the orbit.
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So you can see that. You know, well, at moment. Next week. This is where the Earth is.
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With respect to the. Trail left by Swift Tuttle. So it's starting to plough through back to dust trail.
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Now you might think, well, does that mean we're gonna get some more, when the Earth crosses there?
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I think occasionally that can happen, but not with Swift Tuttle. Because, the orbit of Swift Tuttle.
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Only crosses the orbit of the Earth once because Corby's and comets rather got quite different orbits from those of planets.
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They are highly elliptical. And also very inclined. To the plane of the orbits of the other planets in the solar system.
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So here's some Swift title crossing the Earth's all bit. But you can see it didn't cross it over.
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It's not even that's all bit there, is it, but it's not crossing it over there.
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And that's where Swift Tuttle was about 3 years ago. So, you know, it's just moved around a bit.
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So it's probably approaching, you know, the furthest point in it's all bit from the sun over the next few years.
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Okay, so just clarify that bit about the radiant again in Perseus.
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No.
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Why did we get this radiant then? Why do all the meteors appear to come from the same point in the sky?
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Because actually these dust particles when we can regard them as traveling in essentially parallel paths when they hit the earth.
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So why do we see them like this? Well, it's a perspective effect. Why we say this.
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Now if you think, because if you've got parallel lines and you're looking down those parallel lines, then in the distance they appear to converge.
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And this is a railway line. I don't recommend of course that you stand on a railway line but say you were to stand on a motorway bridge.
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Where you've got the, you know, 2 lanes. Oh, sorry, 2 sides of the, the sort of motorway stretching ahead of you.
00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:20.000
You know that they're parallel, but they will converge at a point. So that's why these, meteors, although they're traveling in parallel paths, then as an observer on the earth, because they're so far away.
00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:25.000
They appear to all emanate from this point called the radiant.
00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:35.000
Okay, so how do you see that? Well, I would wrap up well because, even in the summer, you know, even a nice warm summer night, it can get quite chilly.
00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:45.000
Take a, you know, flask out with you as well. Make sure you're sitting somewhere comfortable some sort of reclining chair Look northeast when it gets dark.
00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:53.000
And obviously find a dark location away from stray light. Best to go out of course with other people from you know the safety point of view but also the camaraderie.
00:26:53.000 --> 00:27:05.000
Point of view as well. Because you've sitting there for a while you haven't seen many meteors nice if you can sort of have a chat and encourage each other.
00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:14.000
And the thing is don't just stare at the radiant. So that point in Perseus, don't just look at that.
00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:24.000
Because, let me just, I'll go back here, okay? That's the radiance there.
00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:31.000
Your eyes are fixed on that point. You might miss any material that's there or there or there. Okay.
00:27:31.000 --> 00:27:39.000
So what you need to do is just scan the surrounding area. You know, Perseus and you know just keep on looking around like that.
00:27:39.000 --> 00:27:44.000
So good luck. And to say we are very much so in the lap of the weather gods.
00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:51.000
But, hopefully, hopefully it's going to be a, you know, slightly better by the end of next week.
00:27:51.000 --> 00:27:59.000
Okay. So it's Saturday, sorry, Sunday, thirteenth of August. But go out on the Saturday nights and make yourself comfortable.
00:27:59.000 --> 00:28:15.000
And, if you do take a style chart out with you. Then, make sure you've got a red torch to, illuminate that chart because otherwise you will ruin what we call your dark adaptation.
00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:22.000
And yeah, as soon as you go out, if you go from somewhere really bright and sit down, don't expect to see loads of stars in the sky.
00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:30.000
You've got to give your eyes time to condition themselves to the lower light levels.
00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:33.000
Right. Okay. So there's.
00:28:33.000 --> 00:28:53.000
That's what, yeah, that's where Perseus is at the, beginning of the month, 7 pm, but of course over, you know, to the next morning it's going to rise higher in the sky and that of course will make it a bit easier to see some of the meetings.
00:28:53.000 --> 00:29:03.000
And I'll say a bit more later on about the constellation of Perseus itself. But let's have a look at perhaps one of the well known features of the summer sky.
00:29:03.000 --> 00:29:08.000
And that is something called the summer. Trying. There. Okay.
00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:15.000
It's a bright triangle of stars in the south. That's and it's not actually a constellation.
00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:24.000
It's what we call an asterism, just a pattern in the sky, a bit like the plow is a pattern, not an actual constellation.
00:29:24.000 --> 00:29:33.000
And the 3 styles that make up the, the triangle. Of these Dennett, which is in the constellation of Cygnus.
00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:40.000
The swan? Vega, which is in the constellation of Lyra, the liar.
00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:47.000
And, which is on the in the constellation of aquila. The eagle.
00:29:47.000 --> 00:30:01.000
And, you know, if you go out, But, 110'clock, so you know, when you're out looking at the you know, just look, overhead.
00:30:01.000 --> 00:30:06.000
And you know, perhaps just turn around to the south and Denb and Vega pretty much overhead.
00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:14.000
And Vega is really the brightest star in that particular region of the sky at that time. Okay, so you'll make up this triangle.
00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:19.000
Alta is the faintest of the 3, but it's still, you know, quite easy to find, okay?
00:30:19.000 --> 00:30:27.000
So, and, as it says here, the triangle points south. So look to the sort of south and.
00:30:27.000 --> 00:30:35.000
You should be able to see the summer triangle. And here's a photograph of, it's an actual photograph, if you can see that.
00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:40.000
Of the stalls. There's DENNED there.
00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:53.000
There's Vega. And there's Alter down the bottom. And you know, Denip is part of the Cygnus, the Swan, the Northern Cross.
00:30:53.000 --> 00:31:00.000
So you can see the sort of cross shape there. I'll say a bit more about Cygnus in a minute.
00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:08.000
And there's Vega there with the liar. Yeah. In a quid of the eagle, okay.
00:31:08.000 --> 00:31:17.000
So there's the triangle there. No, it's quite easy to do. Astrophotography, you know, some smartphones are certainly quite a few smartphones these days are certainly, you know, good enough to do that.
00:31:17.000 --> 00:31:33.000
Or you can do it with a, you know, digital, you know, and this was another photo with a longer exposure time Same area of the sky.
00:31:33.000 --> 00:31:39.000
Dennett, Vega, and Alta. But you can see it's bringing out far more of the background stars.
00:31:39.000 --> 00:31:48.000
And also you can see some sort of How do you miss, that's the Milky Way.
00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:54.000
You do need to be in a dark spot really to see that with certainly with the naked eye.
00:31:54.000 --> 00:31:55.000
And what you're looking at there is the sort of concentrated light from many, many millions of.
00:31:55.000 --> 00:32:04.000
You know, towards the most central regions of our galaxy.
00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:12.000
Oh, let's just say a bit about Cygnus, Swan. But let's have a bit of. Swan.
00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:17.000
But let's have a bit of mythology, first of all. Because sickness is, comes from the myth of Zeus.
00:32:17.000 --> 00:32:35.000
And the goddess Nemesis. Now, had been, chasing, nemesis, it got up to an awful lot of things like that, did Zeus, but in order to escape from him, Nemesis decided that she changed herself into different animals.
00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:45.000
And when she changed herself into a goose though. Zeus changed himself into a swamp. And obviously Nemesis didn't realize that the Swan was used.
00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:52.000
But anyway, Swan won the love of Nemesis. Okay. And then, ISIS then laid an egg and abandoned it.
00:32:52.000 --> 00:32:59.000
Unfortunately, a shepherd found the egg. And gave it to leader who was the wife of the king of Sparta.
00:32:59.000 --> 00:33:06.000
And from that egg came Helen of Troy and Helen was so beautiful that Leda claimed her as her own child.
00:33:06.000 --> 00:33:18.000
And in this, myth here, Cygnus the Swan, was formed to sort of celebrate, the Swan that, used to turn himself into.
00:33:18.000 --> 00:33:27.000
You know there's all sorts of different versions of this mythology so you may know something different.
00:33:27.000 --> 00:33:40.000
So now, so this a star map there. Showing the main stars in sickness the northern cross That's not an official name, but.
00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:45.000
It's a good thing for it. And I'm just going to talk about a couple of these.
00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:51.000
About Dennip itself, one of the summer triangle styles. And then this one down here.
00:33:51.000 --> 00:34:05.000
The beta star which is alberio because i think i've mentioned in previous talks that some styles have got if you like proper names but all of these bright stars here have a Greek letter as a designation.
00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:12.000
Now what about Dennett? Well, Dennip is one of the furthest stars that you can see with your naked eye.
00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:16.000
And we don't know exactly how far away it is for reasons that I won't go into.
00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:26.000
But it's very remote, maybe about 1,500 light years. But you know, other sources, between 1,200. 3,000.
00:34:26.000 --> 00:34:32.000
But I think round about the 1,500 mile is. The more accepted value these days.
00:34:32.000 --> 00:34:42.000
And it's an enormous star and it's a very luminous star, you know, for us to see it when it's that distance away, it's got to be a real powerhouse.
00:34:42.000 --> 00:34:52.000
And estimates of the size of Denne again vary but if that represents the sun. Then that represents if you like an arc of the call of Den.
00:34:52.000 --> 00:34:59.000
It's enormous. Maybe 200 times the diameter of the sun. So, have a look at 10 of them.
00:34:59.000 --> 00:35:08.000
When you look at it, look, remember, you're looking at something that's very far away, but also something that's a very large star.
00:35:08.000 --> 00:35:13.000
Okay, so that's DENNI. And the other one I just want to say something about is this one here beta.
00:35:13.000 --> 00:35:21.000
Which is called, And there is down there. Now, Alberio is one of the loveliest sites in the sky.
00:35:21.000 --> 00:35:30.000
When you look at it with your naked eye. And it's the main styles in the cross.
00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:35.000
You just see a single style. But if you put high magnification binoculars on it or a telescope, you'll see it's too styles and those stars are actually different colors.
00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:42.000
One's a sort of goldy, yellow color and the other one is a sort of bluey green.
00:35:42.000 --> 00:35:50.000
People do describe these colors in different ways because of course, you know, color description is quite subjective. But have a look at that.
00:35:50.000 --> 00:36:01.000
And again, if you don't have the equipment yourself, go along to your local astronomical society and tell them, please, you would like to see.
00:36:01.000 --> 00:36:19.000
So there it is. There, okay. Lyra, the, lia, well, in mythology, this was the liar of, And you know, he made such fantastic music.
00:36:19.000 --> 00:36:30.000
But even inanimate objects. You know, we're charmed by it. And he married a nymph called Eurydice, but she was killed when she stepped on a snake.
00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:35.000
And said to try and claim her back, Orpheus entered the underworld, playing his, liar.
00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:42.000
And Hades again was enchanted by his liar playing So he relented and he let Orpheus bring Eurydice back.
00:36:42.000 --> 00:36:55.000
To the upper world. But there was one condition, you mustn't look back. And always going well until basically the last few steps.
00:36:55.000 --> 00:37:01.000
Unfortunately Orpheus did look back. And so you were to see remained in the underworld.
00:37:01.000 --> 00:37:09.000
And office was, you know, scrapped by grief. And despite the fact he had many marriage proposals, he never accepted them.
00:37:09.000 --> 00:37:13.000
So it's rather a sad story that isn't it? So, but anyway, there's the liar.
00:37:13.000 --> 00:37:18.000
And there's Vega there. I think I've got a better slide of this in it.
00:37:18.000 --> 00:37:24.000
Yeah, here we are. Let's Vega there. And you know, it is one of the brightest stars in the sky.
00:37:24.000 --> 00:37:32.000
And this little quadrilateral that seems to be hanging off it there. They are much fainter stars.
00:37:32.000 --> 00:37:37.000
But you know from a dark site you should be able to see them. And if you've got binoculars, get vagu in your binoculars and just sort of scan over that way.
00:37:37.000 --> 00:37:55.000
And you will see them and other objects. Now, Vake is full of, interest, sorry, not Vegas, Lyra, the constellation is full of interesting objects, but I'm just going to say something about Vega.
00:37:55.000 --> 00:38:01.000
It's the second brightest star that's visible in the northern hemisphere and it's pretty close to us.
00:38:01.000 --> 00:38:10.000
It's about 26 or 2526 light years away. So, you know, when you look at Vega tonight, the light left there.
00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:15.000
Just before the turn of the century to get to your eyes tonight. But it's a very hot star.
00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:25.000
It's a young blue star, but it's bigger than the sun. And you can see an estimate here of the different sizes of the 2 stars.
00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:35.000
So that's Vega. I'll leave that bit out. That the,
00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:49.000
Well, sorry, A, the eagle. And you can make sure that it's out there because there are 2 site, 2 styles on either side of it's outer because there are 2 side, 2 styles on either side of it and an outer is in the middle.
00:38:49.000 --> 00:38:56.000
I look at one of the actual photographs in in a middle in the minute, but, this is based on a giant golden eagle.
00:38:56.000 --> 00:39:10.000
Which served as uses personal messenger and companion. but according to before he became an evil this was a mortal king named Perifas.
00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:20.000
Who was so virtuous that he came to be, it's you know honored by all of his subjects really as a god and Seuss got a bit upset about this.
00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:27.000
And he was about to sort of You know, striking. The intervened and transformed the king into the eagle which we see today.
00:39:27.000 --> 00:39:40.000
So, there we are. So, Aquila is based on a very good person.
00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:48.000
Yeah, so, there we are. There's Alta there in the middle there. And there's the 2 stars on either side.
00:39:48.000 --> 00:39:56.000
Again, if you find out here, just depending on where you're observing from, you might want to just use binoculars too.
00:39:56.000 --> 00:39:59.000
Find those, okay?
00:39:59.000 --> 00:40:06.000
Okay, and again, I'll take it very close to us. It's about 1617 light years away.
00:40:06.000 --> 00:40:16.000
Bye, very bright blue star. And it's spinning rapidly. Okay, they actually, to be quite flattened.
00:40:16.000 --> 00:40:25.000
So have a look for those 3 stars in the triangle. Just one other little constellation I want to tell you about before we look at Perseus.
00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:28.000
And this is a constellation called Delphinus. The, the dolphin.
00:40:28.000 --> 00:40:35.000
Now, it's actually sort of quite faint stars, but they do make quite a distinctive pattern.
00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:43.000
And your eye is extremely good at sort of making patterns. Because if you look at this picture here, okay.
00:40:43.000 --> 00:40:52.000
There's Alter. And so it's the same song as we had before. So, and you've got Deb and Vega off the top of the screen.
00:40:52.000 --> 00:41:00.000
Now, when you find If you're somewhere dark. You better see this with your naked eye.
00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:10.000
Did it? Just scan slightly over in that direction and up a bit. And there's Delphinus, the dolphin.
00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:17.000
And I always think it looks like a flag on a flagpole, to the flag bit is find the opposite way around, okay, but it's quite distinctive.
00:41:17.000 --> 00:41:22.000
There's no mistaking it if you get it in your binoculars or in your naked eye, okay?
00:41:22.000 --> 00:41:31.000
So, that's, you know, Delphi and, Delphinus was based upon a dolphin.
00:41:31.000 --> 00:41:39.000
That Poseidon sent to find, a nymph. And ask her to marry, Poseidon.
00:41:39.000 --> 00:41:45.000
And because of these surfaces, services, he placed the dolphin in the sky, which is fair enough, isn't it?
00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:52.000
Now, to the stars in, Delphinus, interesting how they got their names.
00:41:52.000 --> 00:42:10.000
Because you've got the, alpha star here, okay. And the beta star there okay and The alpha star is called Sue, okay.
00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:17.000
Fair enough. And the beta star. Okay, it's called They seem strange names for stars. It's not based on any Arabic name like a lot of stars.
00:42:17.000 --> 00:42:34.000
So where did this come from? Well, this is an astronomer playing a practical joke. Because this man, and he worked at the Palermo Observatory in Sicily.
00:42:34.000 --> 00:42:40.000
And the names of these styles first appear in a catalog in 1814, these names here.
00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:50.000
Where did they come from? Well, it turns out that, Okay. Kaka kind of the same, Kaki Kiura's name.
00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:53.000
And the English person of that is Nicholas Hunter. And then if you, Latinize it, it's Nicholas Veneto.
00:42:53.000 --> 00:43:04.000
And what Kaki Tori did was he reversed the letters of his Latinized name. To give you the 2 star names.
00:43:04.000 --> 00:43:13.000
Okay, so there's the rotten of. And there's the So, quite a clever thing there and the names of stock. Okay.
00:43:13.000 --> 00:43:21.000
But do look for Delphi. This is a lovely little constellation. Right, on to the constellation of Perseus itself.
00:43:21.000 --> 00:43:35.000
You're going to be looking for the person meet yours. Let's have a look. And this is the, uranium's mirror constellation part, representation of Perseus and the head of the Medusa.
00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:36.000
And I'm not sure I've mentioned these before, but Uranus Mirror, it was a set of constellation cards.
00:43:36.000 --> 00:43:53.000
First published in 1,824. And the whole is punched in the cards whereby you could hold the cards up to say a candle indoors and it would show you the shape of the constellation.
00:43:53.000 --> 00:44:04.000
So you'd be able to recognize it when you went out. You can buy sort of fax similes of these now.
00:44:04.000 --> 00:44:26.000
Yes, we'll take care, right? He slayed the, he rescued the princess Andromeda from the sea monster Cetus and Andromeda was the daughter of Queen Cassipia and King Cepheus and it's quite nice but all of these were not the, but, Andromeda and Cetus and Cassiopeia and
00:44:26.000 --> 00:44:39.000
Cepheus are all in the sky together, like a little sort of family group almost. Anyway, there he is coming in trying to rescue Andromeda.
00:44:39.000 --> 00:44:46.000
And I'll just show you on this chart here. This is a bit later on in the autumn, but there's Perseus.
00:44:46.000 --> 00:45:00.000
Okay, There's Andromeda. And there's And the, I'll see Monster's not on that one, but he's in Sky, I promise you, okay.
00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:08.000
So, it's nice that they're all in there together. Okay. Anyway, so we've already seen that Perseus is going to be.
00:45:08.000 --> 00:45:16.000
You know, since it gets stuck, it's fairly low down in the northeast at the moment, but let as the night progresses and the weeks progress.
00:45:16.000 --> 00:45:21.000
It'll ride.
00:45:21.000 --> 00:45:31.000
There's Persis there. Okay. And I will think that Percyus looks like a chair. Sorry to me. He's not a superhero. He's a chair.
00:45:31.000 --> 00:45:35.000
Is this the seat of the chair? And there are the legs. I think it's only me that sees it like that.
00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:42.000
But I don't think that's any less fanciful than some of these other shapes that, some of the ancient astronomers got out of the stars.
00:45:42.000 --> 00:45:52.000
Now, we're going to look at the brightest star in Perseus, which is called And again, this is an actual photograph of Perseus coming down like that.
00:45:52.000 --> 00:46:02.000
There's the. Seat of the chair and there are the legs coming down and that's myth there.
00:46:02.000 --> 00:46:11.000
So you'd be able to see that. No problem, okay. It's about 600 like years away the best part of and again it's the giant style.
00:46:11.000 --> 00:46:17.000
Over 40 times the diameter of the sun. It's about 5,000 times as luminous.
00:46:17.000 --> 00:46:27.000
So real powerhouse. Okay. But what I'd like you to do when you're out there looking for the meet yours, locate Mayor FAC.
00:46:27.000 --> 00:46:37.000
And then if you got Binoculars with you, have a look at that particular region of the sky around because you should be able to see them something that's called the Alpha Percyi cluster.
00:46:37.000 --> 00:46:43.000
So there's Mia Fact and underneath it is this little sort of semicircle of stars.
00:46:43.000 --> 00:46:58.000
And that is the called the Alpha Percyi cluster. The young stars are say you need binoculars and it sort this several 100 stars in that cluster, but using binoculars, of course, you can only see the, the brighter ones.
00:46:58.000 --> 00:47:02.000
So have a look for that. And again, if you look on the photo, hopefully you can see this.
00:47:02.000 --> 00:47:08.000
There's mere fact there. You see that just little semicircle there. That makes up the alpha.
00:47:08.000 --> 00:47:14.000
Per CI cluster. So look for that.
00:47:14.000 --> 00:47:19.000
Now, the other style that we're going to look at. It's a very famous star.
00:47:19.000 --> 00:47:26.000
Called, and this is beta in the constellation, but it's also called the Demon Star.
00:47:26.000 --> 00:47:36.000
Because the Arab astronomers thought this star was winking at them and they thought it was a bit unlucky.
00:47:36.000 --> 00:47:49.000
Because all Cool. So there it is there, okay? You purchase all the chairs like that, it's the top leg there.
00:47:49.000 --> 00:47:57.000
Now, a variable starts to start the changes brightness over time. And it might be something due to what's going on in the star.
00:47:57.000 --> 00:48:03.000
Or there might be there's something outside the star that's altering the amount of light that we see from Earth.
00:48:03.000 --> 00:48:14.000
And alcohol is of this latter type. What we called an extrinsic variable. And it's what we call an eclipsing binary.
00:48:14.000 --> 00:48:21.000
The 2 styles in the, the system. In fact, there's a third one, but we'll forget about that now.
00:48:21.000 --> 00:48:31.000
As now as seen from the earth. It turns out that as these 2 stars . And they pass that they're aligned as such that they pass.
00:48:31.000 --> 00:48:42.000
Directly in front of one another So if we got this system here, okay. When we've got this position, when the red stars at position one, we're seeing the yellow star is staying fixed.
00:48:42.000 --> 00:48:56.000
Okay. Then you can see that we're getting the combined light of the 2 stars. But then when this star passes in front of back one, there's a dip in brightness.
00:48:56.000 --> 00:49:03.000
Okay. And. You can see it's covering up quite a bit of that style there.
00:49:03.000 --> 00:49:11.000
And then when it moves across to that position there, well, normal service is resumed. We've got the combined lines of both styles again.
00:49:11.000 --> 00:49:19.000
But then, this star passes behind that one. And again, we get another dip in brightness, but a smaller one.
00:49:19.000 --> 00:49:29.000
This time because of the different brightnesses of the 2 components. And then back to position one again.
00:49:29.000 --> 00:49:43.000
So, brightness. And astronomers can plot what we call a light curve. And this is the light curve for Algol. So this is the light curve for, so this is magnitude.
00:49:43.000 --> 00:49:48.000
And again, when I've said in previous talks that with magnitude, it's the light curve for, so this is magnitude.
00:49:48.000 --> 00:49:52.000
And again, when I've said in previous talks that with magnitude, it's a numerical scale and smaller the number, the brighter the object.
00:49:52.000 --> 00:50:00.000
So 2.2 one. It's brighter than 3.4, okay? So, we're getting a dip.
00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:06.000
And then as the was getting the combined light again, then there's the second little dip there.
00:50:06.000 --> 00:50:18.000
And this is for alcohol itself. And then we've got the big dip again. And the time it takes, is 2 days, 20 h and 49 min.
00:50:18.000 --> 00:50:35.000
Okay, so it's quite some. You know consistent okay so that would be called the period of that that variable and you know just depending on the binary system involved the you'd see different size dips and different periods.
00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:43.000
Okay, but this is for Algol itself. And it's really interesting that a man who did a lot of the early work on this was this man, John Goodrey.
00:50:43.000 --> 00:50:55.000
Who live between 1764 and 1786 and you'll see that he was very young when he died he was you know see that he was very young when he died he was you know 2122 and good drink.
00:50:55.000 --> 00:51:07.000
Chile. And, when he was 7, he, well, I think they've moved back to this country by then but they'd it was a diplomat.
00:51:07.000 --> 00:51:20.000
And when he was 7 he well I think they moved back to this country by then but they he became he caught an illness and it left him you know profoundly deaf and you know rather than you know just his parents not taking any interest in his education there was someone called Thomas Braidwood in Edinburgh.
00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:33.000
Who'd set up an academy for deaf children and it's the first such school in the British Isles and in fact children came from all over the country and as far as the Americas to be educated there.
00:51:33.000 --> 00:51:38.000
So Goodric's parents, I mean they were wealthy, but they were able to send him here.
00:51:38.000 --> 00:52:03.000
And he was able to develop his mathematical skills. Thank you. And it was him, you know, he was very interested in astronomy and it was his observations of Algol that really determined with any great accuracy the the period because he wrote in his journal that he'd looked at alcohol as much am I amazed to find its brightness altered.
00:52:03.000 --> 00:52:13.000
It now appears to be fourth magnitude and he observed it hardly believing that it changed its brightness because he'd never heard of any star bearing so quick.
00:52:13.000 --> 00:52:21.000
He thought it might perhaps be some optical illusion. But the SQL show that this change is true and that it was not mistaken.
00:52:21.000 --> 00:52:29.000
So he was clearly recognizing this variability here. And in fact, you say he was working in York when he did this.
00:52:29.000 --> 00:52:48.000
There is this, you know, commemorative pluck in in York and it's interesting and I work, But he also observed another extreme important variable star, Delta Sifi, CFI, which astronomers can use to measure distances to other styles.
00:52:48.000 --> 00:52:53.000
So, you know, if you're in your, try and find that. But, you know, do look up and read about, to John Goodric.
00:52:53.000 --> 00:53:01.000
And put himself on a stamping Nicaragua as well. Aquitations of the style.
00:53:01.000 --> 00:53:18.000
And that's someone Nicholas Copernicus. Actually, this, I know the the publicity of the talk, it mentioned about these not to loose and clouds, but they seem to have died so far this season but I'll just quickly very quickly say what they are.
00:53:18.000 --> 00:53:34.000
Astronomers don't normally like clouds, but they don't mind these because these are called electric blue clouds and they can be seen in the sort of earliest summer months you might still catch some now.
00:53:34.000 --> 00:53:40.000
And in fact, they're different from the ordinary weather clouds, which I can see as I'm looking out of the window here.
00:53:40.000 --> 00:53:50.000
But these are formed in much higher in the atmosphere. And weather clouds are formed about this sort of up to about this sort of level.
00:53:50.000 --> 00:54:02.000
But these are formed in the sort of Mesasphere. And the very tenuous cloud was but they are beautiful if you manage to see them.
00:54:02.000 --> 00:54:23.000
And the reason why we can see them at night is that because of their high altitude because there's our observer there although the sun is now below the horizon okay and all the weather clouds are in shadow because these are so high they're still catching the rays of the sun and then our observer can see them.
00:54:23.000 --> 00:54:38.000
And, that's a picture that I got off a website called space weather. That was taken in Norway, about, you know, 3 days ago, but do look for that quite different weather clouds and you will know what they are when you've seen them.
00:54:38.000 --> 00:54:49.000
But some yeah they are a lovely site but i haven't seen too many this year and It's been, well, I don't think our normal weather has helped, but, that's it.
00:54:49.000 --> 00:54:56.000
I just missed that. And then, Will it be clear that's the question we always ask.
00:54:56.000 --> 00:55:04.000
Well, if you go onto this website. Fair outside. And you put your location, it will give you information, or predictions as to whether it's going to be clear.
00:55:04.000 --> 00:55:09.000
Or predictions as to whether it's going to be clear. You know, if you think put in for the, now, then you know, really can't do it.
00:55:09.000 --> 00:55:22.000
But, you know, generally a day, few hours beforehand, it's can be pretty accurate, tell you whether it's going to be, good for observing.
00:55:22.000 --> 00:55:33.000
So it is specifically for astronomy. So I will leave that. With you. So have a look for the summer triangle and the Percy of Meet Yours.
00:55:33.000 --> 00:55:42.000
You can investigate some of the mythology behind yourself. And perhaps remember some information about the bright styles that I've spoken to you about.
00:55:42.000 --> 00:55:50.000
So just get out there and have a look. Fingers crossed that it's clear and get in touch with your local astronomical society as well.
00:55:50.000 --> 00:55:55.000
The possible meteor watches that they're doing. So thank you very much.
00:55:55.000 --> 00:56:00.000
Thank you very much for that and let's go straight to some questions. We've got a few here.
00:56:00.000 --> 00:56:01.000
I can. Yes, sorry about that. Yes.
00:56:01.000 --> 00:56:06.000
We have run on a little bit. So let's see if we can get through these, get through these, a little bit quickly.
00:56:06.000 --> 00:56:15.000
So now, first of all, Jane was asking just for a bit of clarification about why the per se, is called per seat.
00:56:15.000 --> 00:56:22.000
Now I'm kind of thinking from what you've said, it's because that's the area of the sky where the constellation of Pesius is and that is where we're going to see them coming from.
00:56:22.000 --> 00:56:33.000
That's fine. Yeah, that's exactly, yes, the radiance, this point where they're here.
00:56:33.000 --> 00:56:34.000
Yeah.
00:56:34.000 --> 00:56:38.000
Or repair to come from licensed in the consolation of purse. Yes. And you get other meet your showers throughout the year, they've got different names, the, aquiries.
00:56:38.000 --> 00:56:54.000
The Orion, the Geminids, they appear to originate from different constellations because we see them at different times of the year and they are a result of different comic shower us passing 3 to different comments.
00:56:54.000 --> 00:56:59.000
Okay. And another quick question about, you mentioned, why is it called that? Do we know?
00:56:59.000 --> 00:57:12.000
Oh yes, yeah. Well again, it's not a strict astronomical term. And, I think it's, I mean, I think the expression once in a blue moon, that must have been around for a very long time.
00:57:12.000 --> 00:57:23.000
I don't really know actually. But it is if you actually, you know, look up some data of when, you know, full names occur roughly every sort of 29 days apart.
00:57:23.000 --> 00:57:31.000
So in fact the chances of getting 2 of 2 full moves within the same calendar month is actually quite rare.
00:57:31.000 --> 00:57:36.000
So it's happening this August. I'm not quite sure when the next one going to be.
00:57:36.000 --> 00:57:42.000
It's certainly not going to be in September. So it's probably not for another sort of year or so, something like that.
00:57:42.000 --> 00:57:43.000
Okay.
00:57:43.000 --> 00:57:46.000
I don't know exactly but I think that's it because it's quite a rare.
00:57:46.000 --> 00:57:53.000
You know, someone had the bright idea of calling it that or someone's put 2037 in the the chat is that when the next blue moon is?
00:57:53.000 --> 00:57:54.000
Wow.
00:57:54.000 --> 00:57:58.000
Wow. I didn't realize it was that long away. Right. So yeah, thank you.
00:57:58.000 --> 00:57:59.000
I'll remember that. Thanks.
00:57:59.000 --> 00:58:15.000
Okay. And Catalans asking, are there any, factors. I mean Clouds will be one of them that we know about but any factors like weather or geography where you are that might affect seeing the perceived meteors.
00:58:15.000 --> 00:58:17.000
Next weekend.
00:58:17.000 --> 00:58:23.000
Yeah, well again, you know the weather but also sort of light pollution if you can get yourself away, you know, somewhere dark.
00:58:23.000 --> 00:58:37.000
But. You know, so if you can go to sort of more rural location. But I often find that You know, if you're in your back garden, you know, if that's fairly enclosed, that's all right.
00:58:37.000 --> 00:58:46.000
And if you're somewhere, you know, that looks reasonably dark, but perhaps there's a street lap there, put your elbow up because an elbow carefully positioned elbow against.
00:58:46.000 --> 00:58:54.000
You know, street lights can, help that. And then lots of people putting sort of locations like in there and someone said Northumberland yes it's very dark up there.
00:58:54.000 --> 00:59:04.000
And, oh, and you know, but the earliest recorded English uses of the term blue moon.
00:59:04.000 --> 00:59:10.000
And, oh, that's interesting. And, oh, and you know, about the earliest recorded English uses of the term blue moon in, oh, that's Okay, yes, please.
00:59:10.000 --> 00:59:11.000
Yes, thanks.
00:59:11.000 --> 00:59:15.000
Yeah, I'll make sure you get all these comments. Okay, so. And another question.
00:59:15.000 --> 00:59:24.000
Now this is quite an interesting one actually from Madeline. More of a general question, but is what we see in the August sky.
00:59:24.000 --> 00:59:31.000
No. Gonna be different to what we might see in the August sky next year.
00:59:31.000 --> 00:59:33.000
Right. The stars. Yeah, it is. No, that is a good question.
00:59:33.000 --> 00:59:37.000
Like an interesting one.
00:59:37.000 --> 00:59:56.000
Yeah, the stars will be in the sort of same. Position. But you know, if you're observing on a particular date and time, the planets will be in different places and the moon, the faces of the moon will be different because, you know, the moon, a lunar, month is about 2829 days and we don't get an exact number of
00:59:56.000 --> 01:00:15.000
lunar months in our year. So, you know, the faces of the moon. I mean, I was looking at some website the other day about the Percy its last year the moon did interfere then so when it was a bright moon then but it's not this year so essentially the styles would be the same but would be different planets on view.
01:00:15.000 --> 01:00:20.000
But so you'll still be looking in the northeast for those.
01:00:20.000 --> 01:00:28.000
Yeah, okay, but hope that answers your question, and, now Media was asking about recommendations for apps and websites.
01:00:28.000 --> 01:00:31.000
I was asking about recommendations for apps and websites. Now I think we put together a list last time and didn't wait about various places we could go.
01:00:31.000 --> 01:00:32.000
Yes.
01:00:32.000 --> 01:00:39.000
So we'll make sure that information gets posted up again. Beside this particular lecture recording. So I hope that helps you in Maria.
01:00:39.000 --> 01:00:53.000
And And Jilly was asking, you talked about finding your local astronomical society, you know, if you want to be able to look at things more clearly and have access to equipment and telescopes and things.
01:00:53.000 --> 01:01:02.000
Is there some way where all the astronomical societies in the country, are listed or is it just a case of getting on Google and Same person.
01:01:02.000 --> 01:01:09.000
What we're getting on Google is a good way to do, but there is a body called the Federation of Astronomical Societies, but there is a body called the Federation of Astronomical Societies to which by a large number of astronomical societies in this sort of country.
01:01:09.000 --> 01:01:21.000
Belong. And you know you get in touch with them the FAS, the Federation of Astronomical Societies.
01:01:21.000 --> 01:01:30.000
But it said just Google where you are or your county. And, that would, that should point you in the right direction.
01:01:30.000 --> 01:01:37.000
No, excellent. I hope that helps you, Julie. Now we've got one more question, and I think, and then we'll wrap up.
01:01:37.000 --> 01:01:50.000
This is from Stuart. This is an interesting question. How far back in human history is there evidence of civilizations being familiar with star patterns.
01:01:50.000 --> 01:01:52.000
And why were they interested? Awesome. Good question, isn't it?
01:01:52.000 --> 01:02:08.000
Well that is a very interesting question. I mean, every so often, you know, so often, you know, so often, you know, some of an archaeologist produces a bit of a bone on which they think, you know, someone, an archaeologist produces a bit of a bone on which they think a star map has been carved there's something called
01:02:08.000 --> 01:02:16.000
the neighbor style disc, which was found in Germany some years ago. And that dates back to the sort of Bronze Age and that's meant to sort of have representations of the moon.
01:02:16.000 --> 01:02:33.000
The sun and you know, little 7 sisters, the, but it was important for people to know about, you know, the stars and the, and the planets and the sun.
01:02:33.000 --> 01:02:40.000
The moon because of, you know, it's a way of measuring time, the passage of time, and, you know, planting crops.
01:02:40.000 --> 01:02:55.000
For instance, I know in ancient Egypt when they saw the bright star serious rising in the morning sky just before the sun came up then they knew that that was time to sort of plant you know crops because of the flooding of the Nile.
01:02:55.000 --> 01:03:12.000
And you know lots of in ancient civilizations have got some you know, use various markers like the plaid, 7 sisters that was very important to the Maori in you know, people in Polynesia in general put them in in New Zealand.
01:03:12.000 --> 01:03:21.000
So, you know, it's a way of measuring the passage of time. But, you know, going back to.
01:03:21.000 --> 01:03:26.000
You know, the sort of more classical civilizations perhaps like, I mean, the Babylonians.
01:03:26.000 --> 01:03:43.000
You know, many thousands of years ago, they, you know, kept records of the, you know, the movements of the stars and the planets and it was the Babylonians that first, were able to make predictions about eclipses because they recognized it as a definite period of time.
01:03:43.000 --> 01:03:51.000
Between, you know, interval, if you like, between eclipses. That's all done really by observation.
01:03:51.000 --> 01:04:06.000
So, it's very difficult to say an exact date if you like, but, I think that, you know, every so often someone comes up with something else and you know, some of these, old cave paintings as well.
01:04:06.000 --> 01:04:12.000
Cave paintings at last, in France and some people have put in interpretation that that shows some of the styles.
01:04:12.000 --> 01:04:16.000
But some people haven't put that interpretation on it as well. I think it's fair to say.
01:04:16.000 --> 01:04:17.000
Hmm. So it's a difficult question, isn't it?
01:04:17.000 --> 01:04:26.000
And then. Yes, yes, very, yeah, there's no short answer to that one, I'm afraid, but I hope it has helped.
01:04:26.000 --> 01:04:30.000
Okay, well I think that's, I think we've wrapped up all the questions, I think.
01:04:30.000 --> 01:04:34.000
So thanks again for that and and here is hoping that the weather clears up a little bit.
01:04:34.000 --> 01:04:35.000
Okay.
01:04:35.000 --> 01:04:39.000
And it's a little bit clear here and later on this evening it has to be said and so that everyone can try and have a look at what we've been looking at today on screen.
01:04:39.000 --> 01:04:49.000
And see it in real life