August 6
The Supergiant at Zenith
Sun Position
The Sun is in mid-Leo at about +16° declination. Northern Hemisphere evenings are warm; Southern Hemisphere observers are past the coldest nights of winter.
Sky Highlight
The Perseid shower is approaching peak. On dark nights this week, observers in the Northern Hemisphere can expect to see 50 or more meteors per hour after midnight; the radiant in Perseus rises well above the horizon by 10 PM local time in mid-northern latitudes.
Deep Sky Object
NGC 869 and NGC 884, the Double Cluster in Perseus, are a striking naked-eye smudge on dark nights and a binocular showpiece throughout August. Each cluster lies roughly 7,000 light-years away; together they form a young stellar pair, both rich in blue giant stars. Northern Hemisphere observers have the advantage, but the pair is accessible from Southern Hemisphere mid-latitudes.
Featured Star
Deneb, the A2Ia blue-white supergiant in Cygnus, lies roughly 2,600 light-years distant and is one of the most intrinsically luminous stars visible to the naked eye, it puts out energy equivalent to perhaps 200,000 Suns. A star that would be blinding if it were even one-tenth as close as Vega.
Around This Date
- August 6, 2012NASA's Curiosity rover landed on Mars in Gale Crater at 05:17 UTC, transmitted its first surface images within minutes, and changed the scale of Mars surface science overnight.
- August 5, 2011Juno launched on its five-year transit to Jupiter, where it would eventually map the gas giant's interior structure and reveal unexpected complexity in its polar regions.
The light leaving Deneb tonight will reach another solar system before any spacecraft we have launched ever does.