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What's in the sky tonight?
August 13, 2013

-The first-quarter Moon shines in the southwest at nightfall, with Saturn to its right and Antares farther to its left. Quite close to the Moon is Alpha Librae, a wide double star for binoculars. The Moon occults (covers) Alpha Librae for much of South America.

-The Perseid meteor shower is underway. Last night, international observers counted more than 120 meteors per hour from dark sky sites. Sky watchers should remain alert for Perseids during the dark hours between midnight and sunrise as Earth passes through the debris stream of parent comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. According to NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, the Perseid meteor -shower produces more fireballs than any other annual shower. Last night, Mike Lewinski of Embudo, New Mexico, photographed "the brightest fireball I've ever seen." It was an impressive Perseid, even though he caught only half of it.

-Want to listen to the meteor shower? Use the spaceweather radio here: http://spaceweatherradio.com/

Astro Picture of the Day:
August 13, 2013

Source:
Where are all of these meteors coming from? In terms of direction on the sky, the pointed answer is the constellation of Perseus. That is why the meteor shower that peaked over the past few days is known as the Perseids - the meteors all appear to come from a radiant toward Perseus. Three dimensionally, however, sand-sized debris expelled from Comet Swift-Tuttle follows a well-defined orbit about our Sun, and the part of the orbit that approaches Earth is superposed in front of the Perseus. Therefore, when Earth crosses this orbit, the radiant point of falling debris appears in Perseus. Pictured above, a composite of 13 early images from this year's Pereids meteor shower shows many bright meteors that streaked through the sky the night of August 11 near Oakland, Ontario, Canada.