Me Trying To Share My Interests

Me trying to share my interests

What’s Up For August 2018?

The summer Perseids are here!

The Perseid meteor shower is the best of the year! It peaks on a Moonless summer night from 4 p.m. EST on August 12 until 4 a.m. EST on August 13.

Because the new Moon falls near the peak night, the days before and after the peak will also provide nice, dark skies. Your best window of observation is from a few hours after twilight until dawn, on the days surrounding the peak.

Unlike most meteor showers, which have a short peak of high meteor rates, the Perseids have a very broad peak, as Earth takes more than three weeks to plow through the wide trail of cometary dust from comet Swift-Tuttle.

The Perseids appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus, visible in the northern sky soon after sunset this time of year. Observers in mid-northern latitudes will have the best views.

You should be able to see some meteors from July 17 to August 24, with the rates increasing during the weeks before August 12 and decreasing after August 13.

Observers should be able to see between 60 and 70 per hour at the peak. Remember, you don’t have to look directly at the constellation to see them. You can look anywhere you want to-even directly overhead.

Meteor showers like the Perseids are caused by streams of meteoroids hitting Earth’s atmosphere. The particles were once part of their parent comet-or, in some cases, from an asteroid.

The parade of planets Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars–and the Milky Way continue to grace the evening sky, keeping you and the mosquitoes company while you hunt for meteors.

Watch the full What’s Up for August Video:

There are so many sights to see in the sky. To stay informed, subscribe to our What’s Up video series on Facebook.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

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paranoid0peach

6 years ago

Debussy - La Mer

Behold, the Sea! Wait, wrong piece…so maybe this work doesn’t have an immediate grandeur to it that a turn-of-the-century audience member would expect from an orchestral work called “The Sea”; it’s quiet, subtle, several build ups like waves until a few moments of collapse then back to the murkiness…not the superficial awe and violence the audience expected, I think. Why else would critics say things like “Debussy promised us the ocean, what we got was a puddle”. But maybe because Debussy wasn’t working from a Western sense of drama? Instead of using the term “symphony”, and the conventions of that form which [at the time] allude to some grand finale, he calls them “three symphonic sketches”, and the power comes and goes and flows. Cyclical. Eastern. Perhaps that’s why they chose to use Hokusai’s “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” for the sheet music cover art. And the negative reception at the time could also be because this wasn’t exactly absolute music [after all, it’s about the sea] but it isn’t exactly programatic either [no human connection, no story], it simply…is. Nature that is indifferent to humans. The life and energy that goes on every day beyond our sight.

Movements:

1. "De l'aube à midi sur la mer" – très lent – animez peu à peu [“From dawn to noon on the sea” or “From dawn to midday on the sea” – very slow – animate little by little]

2. “Jeux de vagues” – allegro (dans un rythme très souple) – animé [“Play of the Waves” – allegro (with a very versatile rhythm) – animated]

3. “Dialogue du vent et de la mer” – animé et tumultueux – cédez très légérement [“Dialogue of the wind and the sea” or “Dialogue between wind and waves” – animated and tumultuous – give up very slightly]

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paranoid0peach

7 years ago