AUGUST 2007
THE STARS OF HOT AUGUST NIGHTS
By John Zimmerman
Lake County Skies on August 15, 2007 at 9 pm
Lake County has some of the clearest, darkest skies in the country – perfect for stargazing! In this monthly column, we’ll talk about some of the things you can see at night.
Face south, and look directly overhead. You will see 3 very bright stars that form a triangle – this is called the “Summer Triangle”. Each star is in a different constellation. The star furthest to west is Vega – it is in the constellation of Lyra the Harp (see the star chart). To the east is the bright star Deneb in the constellation of Cygnus the Swan. To the south, the third star in the triangle is Altair in the constellation Aguila the Eagle. Also note low in the south west is the planet Jupiter – it’s brighter than anything else in the August night skies except for the moon.
August skies have some beautiful objects that can be seen with a small to medium telescope. These objects are called deep sky objects. One of these is The Swan Nebula – it’s a big cloud of dust and gas that looks a bit like a 
swan.
Another is the Wild Dick Cluster – a group of stars that appear close together that resemble a flock of ducks in 
flight.
And yet another is the Ring Nebula – it looks like a smoke ring in the sky! Pictures of some of these objects are displayed here.
Around the middle of August there will be a meteor shower that sometimes puts on quite a show. It’s called the Perseids. The best time to see this shower is late night (10 pm – midnight) on August 12 through dawn on the 13th. Get a comfortable lounge chair in a dark location and look to the northeast – you won’t be disappointed!