August 2024

Send us Fan Mail Full Details at Cosmos Safari Blog, quick details below: What is gracing the August 2024 skies? A rare conjunction of Jupiter & Mars, great conditions for the annual Perseid Meteor Shower, and all the naked-eye planets visible. BIG EVENTS 11th – 12th – Perseid Meteor Shower – EXCELLENT year for the Perseids, given the first-quarter Moon sets before midnight. In decent skies, you could watch 60 meteors per hour. Make a game of it! Get the kids counting and do a scientific meteor count 14th - CONJUNCTION OF MARS & JUPITER - The morning of August 14th is the time to see Mars and Jupiter get as close as they’re going to get for a long while. Less than half a degree apart! Look ENE after 1am, or directly East by sunrise, and see the brighter Jupiter juuuuust below the dimmer and redder Mars. This is a GREAT binocular target, naked-eye target, and telescope target. Naked-eye PLANETS Sunset Venus - Venus is slowly starting its evening apparition that’ll last until Mid-March, never getting more than 10° above the horizon, but be patient. Look W and low on the horizon. Middle of the night Saturn - In the beginning of the month, Saturn rises in the East around 10:30pm, earlier every day, until it rises on the 31st just after 8pm. The later you stay up and the later in the month it is, the higher it’ll get, up to 45°, and the further South and West it’ll go. Morning Jupiter, Mars, Saturn – Starting out the month, at sunrise, Jupiter and Mars are about 45° above the ESE horizon. Saturn is just about directly SW, 30° up the sky. By the end of August, Mars and Jupiter switch positions (conjunction on the 14th). Oh, and let’s add Mercury to the list here, but only the last 2 days of the month, where it’s 14° above the Eastern horizon at sunrise. Go out around 5:30am, look East, and see if you can find the dim planet, below the waning crescent Moon. LUNAR CYCLE Morning Crescents New Moon – 4th Evening Crescents First Quarter Moon – 12th Evening Gibbous Full Moon – 19th Waning Gibbous Last Quarter Moon – 26th LUNAR CLOSE ENCOUNTERS 5th - VERY thin Waxing Crescent just above Venus, Mercury down to the left, NNW just after sunset, less than 10° above the horizon 6th - Still thin Waxing Crescent up and to the left of Venus, West, about 10° above the horizon 20th - Less than a degree below Saturn, after 9pm 25th - First encounter with the lineup of Mars, Jupiter, Taurus, & Pleiades. Waning Gibbous up and to right of these, after midnight and into the morning 26th - Last Quarter Moon just below the Pleiades, well above Jupiter, after midnight and into the morning 27th - Moon 6° above Jupiter, after 1am and into the morning, Mars down and left of Jupiter 28th - Moon 6° directly left of Mars, after 1am and into the morning And that’s the sky for this month! If you find this advance notice of the night sky helpful, please support this work by finding Last Minute Astronomer on Patreon, and don’t forget to follow Last Minute Astronomer on Facebook and Instagram. Till next month, I’m the Last Minute Astronomer wishing you fruitful plans and clear skies. Music was produced by Deep Sky Dude and used with permission.