2023-08-10 08:50:48
More than 500 events will be led by volunteer astronomers. A free show to see with the family and with the naked eye.
“On the night of August 12 to 13, you should see 60 to 70 shooting stars per hour”, anticipates Thursday, August 10 on franceinfo Sylvain Bouley, planetary scientist, at the University of Paris-Saclay, president of the Astronomical Society of France. The 33rd edition of the La Nuit des étoiles astronomy festival begins on Friday 11 August. Meet for three days, as soon as night falls, to admire the Perseids at the most spectacular time of the year.
More than 500 events will be led by volunteer astronomers. The program on the website of the French Association of Astronomy.
franceinfo: What will we be able to see during these three days?
Sylvain Bouley : The Earth will cross a large cloud of dust left by a comet and we will see many shooting stars. This will be an opportunity to see a show with the family, with the naked eye. Going out with a beautiful dark sky, you will see several dozen shooting stars per hour. The concentration of cometary dust will be maximum on the night of August 12 to 13. So, in the second part of the night, you should see 60 to 70 shooting stars per hour.
Can we see planets?
We will have the summer sky, so we will find the usual constellations. We will have a good visibility on the Milky Way. From 11 p.m. to midnight, Saturn and Jupiter will appear. To see the details, it is necessary to have glasses or a telescope.
Do you have to equip yourself to see shooting stars?
There is no need for glasses, telescopes, binoculars, the best tool is the eye. It is better to sit quietly and get as far away from the light as possible.
“We’ll be lucky not to have a bright moon so we’ll have pretty dark skies and that will bring out the bright stars and the faint ones.”
Sylvain Bouley, planetologist
at franceinfo
What is the difference between shooting stars and comets?
A comet is a body in the solar system, a small ball of rock and ice, which orbits around the Sun. It moves very slowly and it is very rare to see it in the sky with the naked eye. On the other hand, it releases dust on its trajectory around the Sun and the Earth will regularly encounter this dust. A shooting star is the dust of a comet which enters at full speed, at more than 50,000 kilometers per hour, into the Earth’s atmosphere. At that time, it will heat up the atmosphere, burn at a very high temperature, and leave a nice luminous trail and that’s what we’ll see.
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