Topic for August 9th to August 13th

PERSEIDS METEOR SHOWER
Thursday, August 12, 2010

It's that time of year again to look up to the skies in the late night hours to view the spectacular showing of the Perseids. This Thursday, from 10 pm to dawn, you can watch the meteors go by during the peak of the shower. Best viewing times will be the hours right before dawn, as NASA states, "dozens of Perseids will be seen per hour."

Try and get to the high spots around Santa Barbara, away from street lights, as the less light that interferes, the better the show!!

If you want to know more about stargazing and constellations, you can also contact El Capitán State Beach about Astronomer-led stargazing with telescopes that occur once a month beginning in May each year. They can be reached at (805) 968-1033. You can also go up to Westmont College every 3rd Friday of the month for a free public tour of the observatory & Keck telescope. Click here for a great sky map for August, or here for the website, which updates the maps every month. Just scroll down about halfway and click on the link for the PDF download in whichever language you'd prefer.