AMATEUR ASTRONOMY:

THE PERSEIDS RETURN:

Tomorrow evening (or for that matter just before dawn today- August 12) will be the optimum time for viewing what is usually the most spectacular meteor shower of the year- the Perseids. The estimated time of the peak (these things are never exact) is at about 15:00 Universal Time tomorrow afternoon. This translates into a Winnipeg time of 10:00 am. Fear not and do not despair. The Perseid meteor shower is actually quite a long drawn out affair,and an excess of meteors may be observed from July 23 to August 22. The Winnipeg branch of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada actually plans to hold their Perseid viewing gathering next Sunday, August 15, out at Bird's Hill Park, just northeast of the city. The view of meteors is, of course, best seen at a dark location outside of a city, such as Bird's Hill Park. Just as a fyi, however, the Astronomical Society will apparently have their telescopes out, for public education, at the Italian Pavilion down on Wilkes Ave. during this week of Folklorama. Telescopes are of no use for viewing meteors, but those interested can gain an appreciation of the hobby from members who will be present there. The occasion, Italy wise, is the 400th anniversary of Galileo's telescope. Would that we could celebrate a centenary of the end of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (the Holy Inquisition) who condemned Galileo, but that institution still exists today.

Sunset tomorrow here in Winnipeg is at 8:52 pm, and Moonrise (the Moon interferes with good viewing of meteors) is at 10:52 pm. For those in locations outside of the Central Time Zone please consult the Time and Date website to convert the time of the Perseid peak (and Sunset and Moonrise) to your local time. According to said website the weather conditions here in Winnipeg for tomorrow evening will be "partially cloudy". The Environment Canada site predicts "a few clouds for tomorrow evening. One of the best sites, the Clear Dark Sky site, says that the sky will be basically clear until Midnight, with clouds in the wee hours of Thursday, but clearing about 4:00am. The Clear Dark Sky site is actually one of the best sites to consult because it contains far more parameters than just cloud cover. It is also the site for readers anywhere on the North American continent because it will give viewing conditions for hundreds of sites elsewhere on this continent. So...if you don't live in the centre of the universe known as Winnipeg consult this site to see whether your viewing conditions for the Perseids will be good, bad or indifferent.

By the way, Molly has blogged extensively on the Perseid meteor shower before. If I fail to repost items from previous years (which might happen because of my schedule) try searching "Perseids" on this blog for much more information of this event.

MORE ON TOMORROW'S LUNAR ECLIPSE:
Molly has previously blogged on tomorrow's (March 3rd) lunar eclipse (see our February archives). To my complete astonishment perhaps hundreds of visitors, some of them from areas of the world where the eclipse will be either minimally visible or not visible at all, have come to this site looking for directions as to timing and even viewing possibilities. As a public service this is an expansion of the previous blog that will hopefully give a little more information. To begin with I made a mistake in the original post when copying the time of moonrise from the Time and Date site. Moonrise will actually occur at 6:11 pm- not 6:20 pm- as I originally said. I accidentally copied the time for March 4th from the table. The time for moonset is correct in the original post. I call for attention of readers from elsewhere in the world to the above site as, if you know your time zone, it will allow you to calculate the times for the events that I will describe below. I give the following events in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), Eastern Standard Time (EST) and Central Standard Time(CST) (our time zone here in Winnipeg).
Moon enters penumbra: 20:18 GMT/15:18 EST (3:18pm)/14:18 CST(2:18 pm)
Moon enters umbra: 21:30 GMT/16:30 EST(4:30pm)/15:30 CST(3:30 pm)
Totality begins: 22:40 GMT/17:40 EST(5:40 pm)/16:40 CST (4:40 pm)
Mid-totality: 23:21 GMT/18:21 EST (6:21 pm)/17:21 CST(5:21 pm)
Totality ends: 23:58 GMT/ 18:58 EST(6:58 pm)/ 17:58 CST(5:58 pm)
Moon leaves umbra: 1:11 (March 4th) GMT/ 20:11 (8:11 pm)EST/19:11(7:11pm)CST
Moon leaves penumbra: 2:24 GMT(March 4th)/ 21:24 (9:24pm) EST/20:24 (8:24pm) CST
As you can see, if moonrise is 6:11 pm here in Winnipeg the eclipse will already have passed totality, and all we will see is the fading of the eclipse. The event in august will be much more visible here. People further to the west such as those in Alberta and the west coast will see even less than we do, and people in East Asia will basically see nothing at all. The best viewing will be in the Middle East and Europe, but people in Newfoundland will be able to catch the eclipse at least from the beginning of totality.
More eclipse factoids later.
Molly

NEW LINKS AND AN INTERESTING SIDEBAR:
Molly has added a few more links to her blog, as well as eliminating some dead links. The dead links first. I have trouble linking to the Space.Com website so I have eliminated it from the 'Scientific Links' section. But under there I have now included the Out of the Cradle website, another space related source. Also, under the 'Other Interesting Links' section I have included the 'Time and Date' website. This site is nitpicking at its finest, and Molly admires nitpicking as it is one of her major hobbies. Go to this site to delve into the mysteries of time zones, daylight savings time, sunrise,sunset,moonrise, moonset times and much more. Fun for the inner pedant.
But more importantly-the sidebar- last Feb 12th was Darwin day, the anniversary of both Darwin's 198th birthday and the 148th anniversary of the publication of 'The Origin of Species'. I've added the website that celebrates this event, 'Darwin Day' to the list under the 'scientific Links' category along with 'The Evolution Dialogues' from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and 'The Clergy Letter Project'. Both of these, in particular the latter, address the intersection of science and religion. The last item, in particular, stands as an example of how the majority of the world's Christians, despite the propaganda from the fundamentalists of the 'American Taliban' have made their peace with reality and modern science. A great number of sermons and writings from more intelligent Christians are found on this site.