Obviously how close we are to the Sun does not cause the seasons. In fact, when it is summer in the northern hemisphere, it is winter in the southern and vice versa. But, you do not have to worry about seasons in the Virgin Islands, July or December it is always warm and beautiful. Let the star of day set and the sky grow dark and soon you will see the stars of night.

High in the southeastern sky is a bright star-like object, which is not a star at all, but the largest of all the planets, Jupiter. At this time of this year, Jupiter is seen against the background of stars of Sagittarius, the Archer. Sagittarius looks nothing like an Archer, most stars groups or constellations look nothing like you might expect. Some people can see a tea pot there, with the pot, the spout, a top and a handle. West of Sagittarius and Jupiter is the bright red star Antares. Since Antares is bright red, it is sometimes called the rival of Mars, the red planet. Antares is the heart of Scorpius, the Scorpion. Most people can at least see the Scorpion’s long curved tail.

Once your eyes have adapted to the darkness, look between Sagittarius and Scorpius
and you should be able to see a hazy band of light. This is the Milky Way, our city of stars in the universe. Galileo was the first person to point a telescope at the Milky Way (by the way, he did not invent the telescope). When he looked through his telescope he discovered that the band of light was really an uncountable number of stars. Today we know that the band you see is light from millions and millions of stars so far away that you cannot see them as individual stars, just as a hazy band of light. When you look at the Milky Way in the direction of Sagittarius, you are looking toward the center of our galaxy.

Showers of shooting “stars” are seen throughout the year, but by far and away the best is the Perseid meteor shower. In July 1862 a comet was “discovered” and named after the two men who reported seeing it, Swift-Tuttle. Actually, a review of historical records showed sightings as far back as 69 BC. Every August the Earth passed through the debris left behind by this comet and we seen a shower of shooting stars. Each shooting star is really a pebble sized matter burning up some 30 miles over your head. The best night for seeing this meteor shower is between midnight and dawn the night of August 11-12th. A typical Perseid meteor showers provides about 50 meteors per hour.