July’s Full Moon is the “Hay Moon”, “Buck Moon”, “Thunder Moon”, “Mead Moon”, or “Guru Poornima”.
This meteor shower is the remnants of two different comets. Though it runs from July 12 through August 23, it will peak overnight on July 28th with up to 20 sightings per hour. The meteors will appear to come from the Aquarius constellation.
August’s Full Moon is the “Grain Moon”, “Sturgeon Moon”, “Red Moon”, “Green Corn Moon”, “Lightning Moon”, “Dog Moon”, or “Narali Poornima”.
These meteors are leftovers from Swift-Tuttle comet and are a favorite among many skywatchers. The shower can be visible from July 17th through August 24th, and will peak overnight on August 12th at 60 sightings per hour. Unfortunately, the light from the moon will wash out many of the meteors, though the brightest should still be visible.
Venus and Jupiter are the brightest planets in the sky and will be 0.25 degrees away from one another, which is less than the width of the moon. They will be best viewed before sunrise.
NOVAC’s Byron Bergert Image Processing Group will hold its (Almost) Autumnal Equinox Processing Party on Saturday September 6 from 1-5pm at the Thomas Jefferson Library in Falls Church, on Route 50 just inside the beltway. Same agenda as last time: none. Just bring yourself, your data, a laptop for processing, and/or your questions about imaging. Come when you like, leave when you like. We’ll hang out as long as we have patience for, process images, and talk about imaging.
A suggestion from some folks who were there last time: if anyone would like to bring a projector for a laptop, that could stimulate spontaneous demonstrations! (PixInsight, anyone?) Hope to see you all then.
Kevin
The Hole in the Trees Skybox: http://www.pbase.com/skybox
September’s Full Moon is the “Fruit Moon” (English), “Harvest Moon” (Native American), “Corn Moon”, “Barley Moon”, or “Bhadrapad Poornima”.
The Sun will beam down directly on the equator giving us just about equal amounts of day and night in most parts of the world.