12 August
On 12 August, the peak of the Perseid meteor shower occurs, when skywatchers can expect to see possibly 80-100 meteors per hour if skies are clear.The Perseids are visible between ...
27 FEB. 2004
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1596: On 13 August 1596, David Fabricus discovered Mira, the first pulsating (and second variable) star. In 1603, it was seen, measured and cataloged by Johann Bayer in his Uranometria as star of 4th magnitude, and labelled Omicron Ceti by him. Johann Hevelius observed it from 1659 to 1682, inserted it in his monumental work, Prodomus Astronomiae, and named it 'Mira' ("the Wonderful") in his Historiola Mirae Stellae of 1662.
Mira is the brightest and most famous long-period pulsating variable star in the sky, and gave the name to this whole class of stars.
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11 August
1999: Up to 350 million people in Europe and Asia witnessed the last total solar eclipse of the 20th century.The phenomenon began over the Atlantic, a few hundred miles east ...
10 August
1960: On 10 August 1960, a capsule ejected from the US Discoverer 13 satellite was recovered when it returned from orbit; it was the first human-made object recovered from space.
9 August
1975:On 9 August 1975, ESA launched COS-B. COS-B was the first ESA mission to study gamma-ray sources. Its results created a catalogue of these sources, known as the 2CG catalogue, ...
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