Objects to Observe in the August 2021 Night Sky
Best event for August: Perseid Meteor Shower Peak
Planetary Roundup
Mercury, Venus and Mars are all lost in the bright sunlit part of the sky while Jupiter and Saturn reach opposition making for their best appearance for 2021. Uranus and Neptune are now much higher in the sky making for telescopic observation to become possible.
August 1st – Uranus 1.8-degrees from the Moon.
August 2nd – Saturn Opposition
August 8th – New Moon
August 9th – Double Shadow Transit on Jupiter, starts at Jupiter set here in Saskatchewan but will be best visible farther west, like Hawaii and Japan.
August 11th,12th and 13th – Perseid Meteor Shower peak. Best views are always after midnight and with the moon out of the sky by mid-evening we look forward to using our binoculars to watch for smoke trails from bright meteors.
August 15th – First Quarter Moon and Triple Shadow transit on Jupiter but we miss out here again in central North America with farther west locations favoured.
August 16th – Lunar Straight Wall Visible
August 20th – Jupiter at opposition and Saturn 4-degrees north of the Moon.
August 22nd – Jupiter 4-degrees north of the full Moon. This full moon is also a “Seasonal Blue Moon” noted as the third full Moon in a season that will contain four full Moons. This is the original scientific definition according to Fred Espenak.
August 27th – Uranus 1.5-degrees north of the Moon.
August 30th – Last quarter Moon.
August 31 – Lunar Curtiss X or Curtiss Cross Visible tonight..occurs around last quarter
No Comets brighter than 10th magnitude.
Now here’s something S&T Magazine has a great page up for Double Star Observing they created for observing under smoky skies:
The Actual Astronomy Podcast 