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.
Hi everybody, I’m Rob, your Last Minute Astronomer, bringing astronomy to normies and nerds, with little time to spare.
We’ll start by talking about the big events for the month, then highlight the naked eye planets, and finish up with the lunar phases, so you can plan ahead better than me.
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, and you should be able to see some very bright ones here and there the week before and after. The strategy to observe this year is to get out there whenever you can, but the morning before dawn on the 12th is when you’ll see the most. The shower is usually technically active from mid-July to late August, so you may see some Perseids in the days leading up to and after the peak as well. Remember, you’re seeing the bits of dust left over from Comet Swift-Tuttle burning up as they crash into the atmosphere at 37 miles per second.
Some advice for watching:
Find a dark location and lie down in a reclining chair or hammock
Look toward Perseus (In the NE, rises throughout the night until sunrise where it will be almost directly above.) That is where the radiant is - where the meteors will appear to be coming from.
Check the weather to see if the skies will be clear
Adapt your eyes to the dark by staying away from light sources or using a red light if you need to look at a star chart or not trip over something.
Make a game of it! Get the kids counting and do a scientific meteor count (IMO)
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! So close you can fit both of them in a telescopic view. 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, like a teacher waking up on a summer morning, never getting more than 10° above the horizon, but be patient. It’ll be challenging, but possible, given its brightness. Look W and low on the horizon. Use these next 9 months and your telescope to watch Venus go through its phases. It’s almost full right now, will then go half, crescent, and then pass between the Sun and Earth in March.
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, but always gorgeous through the scope with its rings just about edge-on.
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. If you want to see Jupiter and Mars rise, go out around 2am and look ESE. By the end of August, Mars and Jupiter switch positions (conjunction on the 14th), and rise closer to 1am. At this point, Saturn will be almost setting near the West at sunrise. 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 Events
LUNAR CYCLE
Morning Crescents (look East in the AM)
New Moon – 4th (darkest skies)
Evening Crescents (look West after Sunset)
First Quarter Moon – 12th (Visible until midnight)
Evening Gibbous (Mostly lit, after Sunset)
Full Moon – 19th (Visible all night)
Waning Gibbous (Mostly lit, rises later at night)
Last Quarter Moon – 26th (Visible midnight into the morning)
LUNAR CLOSE ENCOUNTERS
The Moon will be traveling across the sky as normal, passing by some planets at particular times.
1st - Thin Waning Crescent Moon lines up down and to the left of Jupiter and Mars in the East in the morning after 3am
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
29th - Thin Waning Crescent Moon lines up below Mars, Jupiter, Taurus and the Pleiades
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.
All pictures simulated using Starry Night Pro Plus 8.
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