An excellent opportunity to see the Milky Way in the skies
This presents us with an excellent opportunity to see our own galaxy, humankind's place of residence in the universe. Captured recently by Mary McIntyre using a Canon 1100D and 10-18 mm lens, the sprawling array of stars and what appears to be patchy cloud presents itself over the roof tops, as we look at what's known as the 'galactic bulge'. This 'bulge' contains a dense population of older, more established stars, surrounded by interstellar dust.
All told, our galaxy measures 100,000 to 120,000 light-years across and essentially looks like a massive Catherine Wheel, with spiral-arm structures winding their way out from the centre with the Earth sat in one of the outer regions. When we look at the rest of our galaxy from Earth, we are looking inwards toward the centre, about 28,000 light-years distant. Because of this distance and the limitations of the human eye, it all looks a bit hazy, misty, and gaseous in appearance, but right at the heart of the 'bulge', astronomers believe that a supermassive black hole exists.
For the best chance of seeing the Milky Way you need to have clear, dark skies, away from light pollution such as house lighting or street lights. Looking in a south-easterly direction, preferably when there is no moon present, let your eyes adapt to the night sky and in time, the Milky Way should reveal itself.
The Perseid meteor shower continues to build momentum as we head toward the latter part of next weekend when the height of activity occurs. The shower is generated as the Earth passes through the path of debris left by Comet Swift-Tuttle, the largest object in our solar system to pass the Earth repeatedly. Every 133 years, the comet, which was last in our vicinity in 1992, rounds the Sun and re-seeds the original path it left with fresh debris. These mostly sand-size particles come into contact with our atmosphere at about 133,000mph, with the friction of the encounter causing them to burn up in a streak of light, hence, 'shooting stars'. Generally speaking, the larger the size of the debris, the brighter the meteor.
The best time to watch the shower will be on the nights of August 11/12, but they can be observed now by looking in a north-easterly direction after dark, or if possible, after midnight and towards dawn. Remember, you don't need a telescope or binoculars to see the meteors, as the display can be seen with the naked eye.
In the early hours of Sunday, August 3, there's a nice pairing in the northeast morning sky of Venus and Jupiter, Venus being the brighter of the two planets.
We have a full Moon later this week as the so-called full Sturgeon Moon lights up the sky on Friday and Saturday. Other names given to the full Moon in August include Corn, Lynx, and Lightning Moon.
Send your astrophotography pictures to: thenightsky@themoon.co.uk
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