Meteor showers and a stunning star to be seen in New York this month

This month’s evenings are the perfect time to look up.

The highlight of the night sky is the Summer Triangle, which consists of three bright stars from three different constellations: Altair in the constellation Vega, Deneb in the constellation Cygnus, and Vega in the constellation Lyra. Stargazers will also be able to see planets, star clusters, and two meteor showers—all with the naked eye. Most of these can be seen within the five boroughs, or in a park, cemetery, or other dark location.

Jackie Faherty, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History, described the Summer Triangle as “the most important thing in the sky in July.”

Another summer constellation, Scorpius, is not hard to find. It is shaped like a scorpion and at the heart of the constellation is a giant orange-red star called Antares.

The extremely bright blue star Spica is located in the sky in the constellation Virgo. This star will perform a magic trick on July 13 at around 11:25 p.m. That evening, astronomy enthusiasts can watch the Moon move ever closer to Spica, until the star disappears behind its lunar neighbor.

“Even in New York City, you can see Spica,” Faherty said. “It’s a treat to watch the star reappear as the moon passes.”

The Pleiades star cluster, which means Seven Sisters, contains more than a thousand stars loosely bound together by gravity. The cluster is also called Subaru (hence the car company’s logo).

The three planets often mistaken for stars, and can be seen with the naked eye – Mars, Saturn and Jupiter. They are not difficult to find in dissonance because they are bright, but not twinkling.

At the beginning of the month, Saturn will rise just before midnight, but by the end it will be visible as early as 10 p.m. For night birds, Mars and Jupiter join Saturn in the sky after 1 a.m.

“You can find Mars, Jupiter and Saturn together, and they are bright, beautiful planets,” Faherty said.

This month will also see two meteor showers. The Southern Aquarius meteor shower begins on July 18 and continues through August 21. On July 29 and 30, the shower will peak with 20 meteors per hour traveling at 25 miles per second. The meteors will appear in the southern sky, coming from the constellation Aquarius.

The Delta Aquariids are space debris left over from Comet 96P/Machholz, which was discovered in 1986. The comet is 4 miles wide and has a short, five-year orbit around the Sun.

The second meteor shower of the month is the Perseid shower, which begins on July 14 and ends on September 1. At its peak on August 11 and 12, up to 100 meteors per hour streak across the sky at 37 miles per second.

Meteor showers are one of Faherty’s favorite things to do because of their bright and abundant meteors. This cosmic light show is the result of space dust from Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, which takes 133 years to orbit the sun. The comet’s nucleus is 16 miles across.

The best way to see a meteor shower is to lie on your back under a dark sky. Be patient. It takes about 30 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the darkness, making the meteors more visible.

Another stunning sight to see with the naked eye at this time of year is the Milky Way. In July, the Milky Way is high in the sky, especially toward the end of the month.

The constellations Scorpius and Sagittarius are close by, and can be used to pinpoint the center of the Milky Way. It’s hard to see from the city, but New Yorkers vacationing under darker skies like the Catskills or farther north will see clouds in the night sky.

“It’s a thin spot that represents all these stars that make up the disk of the Milky Way galaxy that we live in,” Faherty said. “The Milky Way is so beautiful – it stretches from one side of the sky to the other, and it looks like a white river.”

While binoculars and telescopes are not necessary, a close look can make many of these celestial sights look as real as Saturn’s rings as well as the surfaces of planets and moons. The Amateur Astronomy Society hosts Free public view All over town, several times a week.