This weekend is Nights of the Stars so be prepared to watch a lot of shooting stars

This weekend, amateur astronomers will be able to admire dozens of shooting stars per hour in the night sky, and perhaps the Northern Lights, in the 34th edition of Nights of the Stars dedicated to the astronaut Hubert Reeves who died last year. Almost 575 events are organized across France from Friday to Sunday to look at the shooting stars of the Perseids, clouds of dust from an ancient comedy that the Earth crosses every year in the first half of the August.

This year, a “Non-zero probability of seeing polar auroras, continuing the events seen at the beginning of May” at unusual latitudes after a historic solar storm, said Olivier Las Vergnas, president of the French Astronomical Association (AFA), on Thursday. “Worth a look”added the head of the AFA, organizer of Nights of the Stars, at a press conference.

The AFA expects almost 200,000 people in local astronomy clubs with observation equipment, but we can also be satisfied with a deck chair in a garden to appreciate the night sky, as long as we have a clear sky without barrier and free from light pollution.

With a small moon (very thin crescent), making the most of the constellations, “We have everything we need”rejoiced Olivier Las Vergnas. “With the naked eye looking south, we can see the nebulous structure of our galaxy. “, he explained, asking the need to limit light sources as much as possible (phone, indoor and outdoor lights) to get your eyes used to darkness. Mars and Jupiter will be visible from 2 am to 5 am.

We can see some of the thousands of Starlink satellites from Elon Musk’s Space X company passing by. “It will not be difficult for the naked eye”, ensures Olivier Las Vergnas. But nevertheless he emphasizes that these constellations “a disaster for photography and scientific research” because they pollute the latest scenes.

This 34th edition is placed under the sign of an understanding of the origin of life, as a tribute to Hubert Reeves, who died in October 2023 at the age of 91, who was one of the founders of Nuits des Etoiles. “We are on top”, said the Franco-Canadian astronomer to explain the creation of the solar system, the Earth, and therefore where we came from. He knew “Connecting the History of the Universe and the History of Man”Welcome to Olivier Las Vergnas.