Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, August 12th. Today the Sun will be up for 14 hours and 10 minutes, setting at 8:52, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:43. The Moon, 3 days past full, will rise at 10:26 this evening.

Tonight we get a second chance to see some of the Perseid meteor shower. As I said yesterday, the Moon is going to interfere with this year’s display. But, there is a small interval during twilight this evening, before the moon rises, where the sky could be dark enough to see more than a few Perseids. For nearly half an hour after 10 PM, it might be dark enough to see the Perseids under reasonably dark skies. The radiant where the meteors appear to come from will be low in the north northeast, about 17° above the horizon which means the expected number of meteors one would see in a half hour would be about 15 and with a not quite dark skies probably be a little less than that. But it is a chance to see the Perseids this year.

The astronomical event times given in this blog are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (Lat 44.7° N, Long 85.7° W; EDT, UT – 4 hours) unless stated otherwise. Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum