PERSEID METEOR SHOWER UPDATE: The Perseid meteor shower is peaking now. International observers are reporting more than 60 Perseids per hour (ZHR) from dark sky sites--a typical hourly rate for this reliable annual shower. Relatively high activity should persist for another 12 to 24 hours: Observing tips.
"Here is one of the brighter meteors from last night's Perseid shower," reports Graeme Whipps from Scotland. "I caught in late evening twilight over the Mither Tap, the most prominent summit of the Bennachie range in Aberdeenshire."
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THE INFERIOR CONJUNCTION OF VENUS--TODAY: It's dangerous, but beautiful. Today, Venus is passing almost directly between Earth and the sun--an event astronomers call "inferior conjunction." This is turning the planet into a whisper-thin crescent:
Dr. Sebastian Voltmer took the picture from a beach in Sardegna, Italy. "Venus was next to the sun in broad daylight," he says. "Be careful not to accidentally look at the sun without a solar filter."
Indeed, it is easy to make a mistake. Venus is only 7 degrees from the sun. Bright, blinding rays of sunlight can enter your telescope with only a slight accidental nudge of the tripod. Suggestion: Read Sky & Telescope's observing tips before attempting any photography.
If you do see Venus today, you'll be glad you did. At closest approach to the sun, Venus sometimes transforms itself from a simple crescent into a complete 360-degree annulus--a ghostly ring of light caused by sunlight filtering through the planet's cloudtops. Got a photo? Submit it here.
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VOYAGER GOLDEN RECORD ORNAMENT: This is a must-have Christmas ornament for space fans: The Voyager Golden Record. Last Oct. 15th, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched it to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon:
You can have it for $129.95. The 4-inch aluminum disk is imprinted with instructions intended for extraterrestrials, telling them how to play the phonographs now sailing through interstellar space onboard NASA's Voyager probes. Having touched the edge of space, it's the closest thing on Earth to an actual Golden Record.
The students are selling these unique ornaments to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the ornament in flight and extra materials decoding the markings on the disk.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
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