By Kathleen Thurber

Staff Writer

For self-described astronomy nerds who'd rather gaze at ceiling projections of star charts than catch the latest "Batman" flick, August likely is to be a thrilling 31 days.

Starting off early, the first total solar eclipse in nearly 2 1/2 years will be visible today when the moon passes between the sun and the Earth, causing a complete obstruction of the sun.

Unfortunately, said Warren Hart at the Mayborn Planetarium & Space Theater in Killeen, like many complete solar eclipses, it won't be visible from any Texas backyards.

"You have to go on the Internet or go to China," he said, laughing a bit.

However, many Texans are working to make the mystique of this dawn sky as real as possible by broadcasting the eclipse in various planetarium theaters. And for those who aren't able to travel to Lubbock, Fort Davis, Killeen or elsewhere, NASA plans to broadcast the event through bloggers camped out near the Mongolian border of northwest China.

The second-hand viewing is a method West Texans may have to get used to, as the next total solar eclipse plotted for ideal viewing in North America won't appear until 2017.

Still, while much of the West may miss out on the event moon enthusiasts already have traveled thousands of miles to catch, it doesn't mean they'll be left completely in the dark.

Anyone willing to stay up a little late on Aug. 12 will be able to tally more than one shooting star on their viewing pedometer when the Perseid meteor shower sends several bursts of streaming light through the night skies, said Patrice Fay, interim education program manager at Texas Tech Museum's Moody Planetarium.

The meteor shower -named for the constellation and Greek god Perseus, also called "the hero" - will be visible by looking eastward starting just after sunset and likely peaking in activity in the early a.m. hours of Aug. 13, said Rebecca Johnson at the McDonald Observatory near Fort Davis.

Meteors, more commonly called shooting stars, actually are tiny pieces of interplanetary rock and debris that ignite about 30 to 80 miles above the Earth's surface and usually are destroyed as they travel through the sky, creating the appearance of a star whizzing by, according to Isolated instances of meteors are plausible nearly every night, especially in the open skies of West Texas, Fay said.

In the case of meteor showers, according to the International Meteor Organization, the Earth is traveling through the stream of dust and icy debris shed by comets, which is usually what's occurring anytime a significant number of meteors are visible in one night.

And though experts remind citizen star gazers eclipses are most safely viewed with some sort of eye protection, meteor showers require no such precautions and can be viewed simply by plopping down in the right direction and patiently starring upward, Fay said.

If an early meeting keeps some from staying up late to count shooting stars Aug. 12, parts of the shower should continue through Aug. 22, with activity diminishing as the month continues, according to star charts.

Plus, an array of planets will be visible for much of the month, so those who aren't into scheduling their sky-watching time will have something to see nearly every night.

Saturn and Mars should be visible from the start of the month, with Mars appearing like an orange-colored star just to the right of the moon and Saturn sitting to the lower right of Mars in the first few days of the month.

Venus should also be visible during most of the month's sunset skies, Johnson said, and Mercury will shine brightly during late August sunsets.

For those who keep their sky calendars handy, most nights will hold something in store. But, even for those who classified astronomy as a subject that was best avoided during their school days, the next month should bring something worth glancing upward for.

Kathleen Thurber can be reached at