 KUNDA DIXIT ANOTHER ECLIPSE: A partial solar eclipse, similar to this one over Nepal in March 2006, will happen on Friday afternoon. There will also be a lunar eclipse and a metriotie shower in August. |
It should be quite a sight, but our customary health warning: looking at the sun without proper protection will blind you.
Today's eclipse is one of two eclipses this month: the other one is a partial lunar eclipse on 17 August. This one will be early in the morning between 01:05 and 04:14, with 80 per cent of the moon covered at 02:39. Time to start organising eclipse parties and hope for clear skies.
The 1 August total solar eclipse will start in northern Canada at 09:23 UT then sweep eastwards crossing Greenland and make landfall in Europe in northern Russia. The greatest eclipse occurs at 10:21 UT and the maximum duration around that time will be 2 minutes and 27 seconds. Over the course of the next hour, the Moon's shadow crosses Mongolia and leaves the Earth's surface in northern China. Here in Nepal, the eclipse will be partial.
The other excitement in August are the Perseid Showers, which is why August is called "Meteorite Month" as the Earth passes through the debris of the comet, Swift-Tuttle. At its peak on 11-12 August we may see up to one shooting star a minute. The Perseids are a rich and consistent shower and it should be a spectacular firework display. Notice that all the meteorites seem to radiate from the same point in the sky from the constellation of Perseus (hence called Perseids) which lies to the north of Taurus the Bull. If you can't identify this constellation, just look to the northeast direction after midnight and you'll see meteors shooting out of Perseus.
For planet watchers, the predawn sky is kind of dull this month since all the action is at sunset. All the five visible planets are in the evening sky after sunset in August: Mercury, Venus, Saturn and Mars, all in a straight line.
Mercury sets about half an hour after the Sun. Venus sets almost an hour after the Sun. Saturn sits in Leo and shares this constellation with Venus and Mercury at the beginning of the month.
Venus, Mercury and Saturn seem to be having a get-together as the three of them meet close to the sunset twilight on 15 August. Jupiter is high in the southeast and is brilliant in Sagittarius, so you can't mistake it for anything else.
kedarbadu(at)gmail.com
