Summer Stargazing

Return to the Summer Triangle and locate the star Altair, its southernmost star. Altair lays within Aquila the Eagle, marking the beak of the bird, while fainter stars denote its outstretched wings and tail feathers.

Just to the east of Altair lies the small but distinctive constellation of Delphinus the Dolphin. Delphinus is formed by a diamond of four stars, which comprises the Dolphin's body, and a fifth star to the south that marks its tail. Of course, not all cultures saw a dolphin among these stars. The ancient Chinese, for instance, saw a camel, with the diamond representing the camel's hump. Be it a dolphin or a camel, none of the stars in Delphinus are very bright. Still, its kitelike pattern stands out quite well against the barren surroundings.

The third star in the triangle is Deneb, part of Cygnus the Swan. In this case, the shape of a swan captured in mid-flight is quite easy to imagine. Deneb represents its tail. The swan's body and long neck extend to the star Albireo, a beautiful double star when viewed through a telescope. Wings stretch outward from either side of the star Sadr in the swan's body. Many people also refer to this pattern as the Northern Cross for its likeness to a crucifix.

Our Galaxy
Now, look for a hazy band of light passing through the Summer Triangle and stretching from the northeast to the south. This is the Milky Way—a pinwheel-shaped system of perhaps 400 billion stars, of which the sun is just one. Actually, all of the stars seen in the sky belong to the Milky Way. It is just that when we look along the edge of our galaxy, we are seeing many times the number of stars than when we look above or below it.

August Astronomy
The summer has its own celestial fireworks display every August as the Earth experiences the Perseid meteor shower. Meteors are sometimes called shooting stars or falling stars, as they rocket quickly across the sky. Actually, each is a tiny speck of interplanetary dust no larger than a grain of sand that we see collide with and burn up in our atmosphere.

The Perseids are so named because the meteors seem to radiate from the constellation Perseus, which can be found rising in the northeast on August evenings. The best time to look at this shower, however, is usually between midnight and dawn on the mornings of August 11 and 12, when Perseus is high in the sky. Under dark skies, an observer may see as many as fifty to sixty meteors an hour.

Unfortunately, due to the August 15th Full Moon, you may see only see half of the predicted meteors. In 2000, the best time to watch the shower will be limited to between 3:30 a.m.—when the Full Moon has set—and the beginning of twilight (around 4:20 a.m.) on August 12.