Episode 442 – Observer’s Calendar for August 2024

4th Mercury Stationary

5th Venus 1.7 below Moon this evening

6th 7 Iris at opposition (m=8.1)

Iris was discovered on August 13, 1847, by J. R. Hind from London, UK. It was Hind’s first asteroid discovery and the seventh asteroid to be discovered overall. It was named after the rainbow goddess Iris in Greek mythology, who was a messenger to the gods, especially Hera.  is a large main-belt asteroid and possible remnant planetesimal orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. It is the fourth-brightest object in the asteroid belt. 7 Iris is classified as an S-type asteroid, meaning that it has a stony composition.

6th 16 Psyche at opposition (m=9.3)

Psyche was discovered by the Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis, on 17 March 1852 and named after the Greek goddess Psyche. The prefix “16” signifies that it was the sixteenth minor planet in order of discovery. It is the largest and most massive of the M-type asteroids, and one of the dozen most massive asteroids

6th Mercury 7-degrees below Moon this evening

7th Two shadows on Jupiter visible in eastern N. America 2:54 am EST

8th Moon at Apogee

11th Mars pairs with Jupiter this week

11th Lunar X near crater Werner visible from eastern N. America 6 pm EDT

12th Lunar Straight Wall this evening

12th Perseid meteors (ZHR=100) 4 am, best seen in predawn hours August 12th to 16th

14th Two shadows on Jupiter visible in western N. America 4:31 am EDT

14th Mars 0.3 – degrees above Jupiter in conjunction this morning

18th Mercury in inferior conjunction

18th Moon Occults Neptune 3:21 am EDT this morning

21st Moon at Perigee

21st Two shadows on Jupiter visible in extreme western N. America 8:08 am EDT

21st Saturn 0.5 – Degree below Moon this evening

25th Russell Hulse and Joseph Taylor discover first binary pulsar, 50 years ago.

27th Jupiter, Mars, Uranus, Moon, Saturn, Neptune in a line this evening

28th Mercury Stationary

30th Fred Whipple, known for “dirty snowball” theory of comets, died, 20 years ago.

31st Aurigids (ZHR=10) 7 am, best seen in predawn hours this morning

Comets

13P Olber’s it is 6.9 magnitude

12P Pons Brooks is 8.o magnitude

C/2023 A3 ( Tsuchinshan-ATLAS ) is 9.o magnitude