'Stellar nights' of meteor showers this weekend

Meteors, commonly known as shooting stars, will rain across Havre’s northern skies this weekend.

The Perseids meteor shower is one of the astronomical highlights of the year, astronomy hobbyist Steve Jamruszka of Havre said.

“This one should be pretty exciting,” Jamruszka said. “The weather forecast is going to cooperate, and so is the moon.”

This weekend’s new moon phase “essentially means no moon at all,” he added.

Meteors will therefore be highly visible, Time.com reports, unlike the 2017 Perseids that were obscured by a full moon.

The meteor shower, pronounced “purse-y-idz,” is expected to be the best one this year, the web article reports.

“All the factors are combining to make it a stellar night,” Jamruszka said.

Spotting the Perseids

The meteor showers will be easy to find, Jamruszka said.

“Just find the Milky Way,” he added, “and follow it toward the horizon to the north.”

The meteor shower appears to radiate out of the Perseus constellation, which is named after Medusa’s beheader in Greek mythology, Jamruszka said.

Peak days

Friday, Saturday and Sunday night are expected to have the highest number of meteors visible, Jamruszka said, adding that Friday and Sunday night’s forecasts are clear.

“The peak day is Saturday night, Sunday morning,” he said.

Time.com, however, estimates the best time to watch will be the night of Monday, Aug. 12, through the morning of Tuesday, Aug. 13.

Stargazers should be able to see around 60 to 70 meteors per hour during peak nights, the web page says. It adds that during years when the Perseids shower is in “outburst,” viewers can see 150 to 200 meteors per hour.

Best times

The forecast is partly cloudy Saturday night, Jamruszka said.

“When that happens, the best viewing of this is the 4 a.m. range,” he said.

“Now that doesn’t mean, if you went out at 10:30, you wouldn’t see a lot of them, you would,” Jamruszka added. “The best of the best, the best seeing conditions, as it’s known in astronomical societies, is early morning.”

Who to invite

Jamruszka suggested bringing someone who has stargazed before, plus chairs or a blanket and safety precautions for dark conditions.

“You don’t wanna turn a light on, because your night vision will get destroyed for about thirty minutes,” he said.

“It’s really exhilarating to be out there in the dark,” he added. “Nothing to fear, you just don’t want to be wandering off … ’cause there’s badger holes and you don’t want to break a leg. But as far as flora and fauna, there’s nothing out there that’s gonna hurt ya.”

He also warned against drinking too much wine,.

“You start to see aliens,” he said, laughing. “You have to be able to get home … too much Jack Daniels will do that.”

Hi-Line’s dark skies

Unlike people near big cities, Jamruszka said, people on the Hi-Line don’t have to go far for great stargazing.

“I think that’s something that we take for granted in this part of Montana,” Havre Trails organizer Lindsey Brandt-Bennett said today.

Havre Trails has organized stargazing events with Jamruszka in the past, she added.

“If you look at a light pollution map of the US, northern and eastern Montana are some of the only spots left that still look dark,” Brandt-Bennett said. “That means we have some of the best (astronomy) viewing opportunities in the country.”

Jamruszka added that bugs, deer and other animals are affected by light pollution.

“We’re having a pretty profound effect on life as we know it,” he said.

“When there is no dark skies, there will be no more bats. No more bats means more insects,” he said, adding that with more insects could come more pestilence.

“Night skies are a part of that balance,” Jamruszka said.

What you’re seeing

Shooting stars are a lot smaller than most people think, Jamruszka said.

Meteors are usually “like little pebbles of sand,” he added. “They just float out there.”

The ancient Swift-Tuttle comet left this weekend’s meteors behind in the trail of its 133-year orbit around the sun, a 2016 NASA web article reports.

Earth will cross that debris trail this weekend during its orbit; the planet’s gravity attracts the meteors, the article adds, which burn up from the friction of entering Earth’s atmosphere.

Though the meteors are small, “they’ve traveled billions of miles before their kamikaze run into Earth’s atmosphere,” NASA scientist Bill Cooke said in the 2016 article.

Some meteors are larger, however, Jamruszka said.

Jamruszka said he saw a “fireball” meteor, which is about the size of a human fist, streak across the sky for a split second during a Perseids shower.

“A fireball lit up the whole area — it was just like someone turned on a light,” he said. “It caused me to duck. It was one of those things that happen so quickly, you think it was lightning but there was no thunder. All of a sudden you could see everybody.”

The International Space Station

Stargazers can look for the International Space Station, as well, Jamruszka said.

Viewers can track the station with https://spotthestation.nasa.gov; it crosses the sky in five to six minutes, he said, adding that the faster the station crosses, the farther away it is.

“By the time you see it, it’s already over New York,” he said. “ … Perspectives are what I’m really talking about here. When it drops out of sight it’s already over the Atlantic.”

“It looks like a gold light going across the horizon,” Jamruszka said, adding that the gold is caused by sunlight reflecting off the solar panels.

“It’s only 250 miles up,” he added. “ … That’s here to Billings.”

Planets, stars and galaxies

Several planets, including a false one, are visible this weekend, Jamruszka said, as well as our neighboring galaxy Andromeda.

“(Mars) is large and in charge” at about midnight in the southern sky, he said. Its appearance will shrink next month, he added.

“Right now it’s an impressive sight, it’s huge,” Jamruszka said. “You’ll see it and be amazed by it.”

A “false Mars” is also visible high in the sky at the heart of the Scorpio constellation, he added. It is a deep red star that Jamruszka said is getting ready to explode.

Jupiter is currently the brightest object after Mars, he said.

“And when you find Jupiter, in the southwest skies, a 15 to 25 power spotting ’scope will pick up four moons for you,” he said. “There’s, I think, 69 moons on Jupiter and the four largest moons are visible.”

He added that Andromeda galaxy is visible with the naked eye.

“You’ve probably seen it and just didn’t know it,” he said.

Insider viewing spots

Havre Trails has hosted stargazing events with Jamruzka in the past, Brandt-Bennett said, at the meadow above Rotary Falls just before Bear Paw Lake in the Bear Paw Mountains, which she added is even further from the lights of Havre than Beaver Creek Reservoir and better viewing.

“Sometimes my family drives north 10 miles or so to see what we can see,” she added. “We’ll definitely be checking out the Perseids again this year.”

Jamruszka said he will consider where smoke from recent fires is coming from, combined with the wind direction, to decide where he will watch and photograph the showers.

“There’s a few places out of town that you can get up above … some of this smoke,” he added.

Jamruszka recommended going north of town, such as out to Shepherd Road past Prairie Farm Golf Course.

“Once you get out of the valley and you start to climb just a little bit, there’s an intersection of the road and I set up there,” he said, adding that there is a bit of a hole in the ground where the sky glow doesn’t affect viewing.

“Fresno’s not a bad location for that, too,” he said, adding, “Watch out for june bugs, though. ... The coyotes howl — it’s quite an experience — the geese fly over. You’re gonna get a lot more bang for your buck if you get out of town and pay attention to the rest of nature while you’re out there.”

He also mentioned Bullwhacker country, south of Chinook by about 60 or 70 miles.

“That’s where the ox (Wagon) trains came off the Missouri … and made their way across the plains,” Jamruszka said. “Well, that area down there might have three yard lights. So if you want dark skies — grab a tent, go down there, pitch it and I’ll guarantee you it’ll be a sight you won’t forget.”