What's Up for August? Perseids, of course!

The Perseids will make summertime extra special this year because the moon will not interfere with the meteor show. Plus, as a bonus, a trio of planets plus the moon make a sunset appearance on the nights surrounding the peak of the Perseids on August 12-13. Our solar system is on display 24-7! This month's What's Up podcast features the Perseids, naturally! It has some nice animation of the why and where of meteors, and talks about all the upcoming comet and asteroid missions. It also touches on Mars in August, and offers a good night to use that Mars hoax email to practice some critical thinking skills. On August 12-14, the moon and Mars appear near one another for all to see and compare. On the Solar System Exploration website are all the many formats of the video. Including some with captions - perfect to show on a screen in a busy planetarium or museum without audio. I included some edible rocks and asteroid recipes this month in the education section. I've also linked to "the Fluxtimator" to see how many meteors you can see in your area. What's Up Video and Blog page: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup-archive.cfm Here is the JPL YouTube page with lots of other content: http://www.youtube.com/user/JPLnews For the past eight years, I've updated a Mars in August page, and this year I use it as a great way to teach critical thinking to the public. If you're interested, here it is: http://www.otastro.org/Mars2005/ Next month (September 2010) my video will be about the moon for International Observe the Moon night. http://observethemoonnight.org/ Jane Houston Jones Senior Outreach Specialist, Cassini Program JPL - 4800 Oak Grove Drive, MS 230-205 Pasadena, CA 91109 818-393-6435 jane.h.jones(a)jpl.nasa.gov What's Up For August? Perseids! http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup-archive.cfm