What’s up in July’s Kendall County skies

NIGHT SKIES

Well, we’ve certainly had awful skies this entire spring – awful for astronomy that is. I love it when it rains, and we had a lot of rain in April, May and early June.

However, that has meant very few nights of clear skies. I got to image deep sky objects once in mid-April, once in May and zero thus far in June as I write this article. To make matters worse, our Mexican neighbors to the south are doing what they do every year: burning their Agave & Sugar Cane fields so they can replant.

This year, the massive heat dome and inversion we’re under has made the smoke linger and kept it close to the ground. The heat dome has also meant little wind and unusually high humidity. All of this means a poor summer for astronomy thus far.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know we’re going to have an annual solar eclipse in this part of Texas on Oct. 14. For Boerne here is what you need to know: Begins: 10:23 a.m.

Maximum: 11:53 a.m.

Ends: 1:31 p.m.

The annularity will last 3 minutes and 55 seconds for Boerne at maximum.

Our planet doesn’t orbit the sun in a circle, rather it’s an ellipse or a less than round circle. For this reason, each month we’re a bit closer or farther away from the sun than the next. For this eclipse, we’re a bit closer to the sun than we will be during the total solar eclipse in April 2024. So, although from Boerne this October, the moon will be exactly in the middle of the sun, but the solar disc will show as a ring around the moon.

The sky won’t get very dark and, since the sun will still show around the moon, you MUST use Eclipse Glasses during the entire event. DO NOT look at the solar disc at any time during this annular eclipse without Eclipse Glasses.

Here is a very good article on viewing the Annular and Total solar eclipses from a safety perspective: ( solarsystem. nasa. gov/ eclipses/ safety/) And here is a good place to buy your eclipse glasses and related material: (myscienceshop.com) I also encourage you to check out this website for all thing amateur astronomy: (astroleague.org). I coordinate & issue certificates for one of their observing award programs, the Herschel 400.

HT