Cool Things In The Sky
for the month of August, 2008
Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn will put on a bit of a show around mid-month. Looking low in the western sky on the 13th, you will be able to see Venus pass within 2 tenths of a degree of Saturn. as Saturn sinks closer to the sun in the evening sky. Venus will be within 1.2 degrees of Mercury on the 22nd. Mars will join in the dance by late August and into the first couple of weeks of September.
Jupiter still rules the night sky as the brightest planet well into the evening in the south west. Get out your binoculars and test your skills to see how many of the Galilean satellites you can see near the gas giant.
The Perseid Meteors are due to peak the morning of the 12th but you’ll need to wait for the moon to set at 1:40 AM in order to have a better opportunity to see this annual shower. Sometimes unpredictable, the Perseids can bring us a spectacular display. You might see as many as 80-90 meteors per hour before dawn on the 12th. If you can, find a dark sky location and lie on the ground, feet pointed south and watch as the Perseids streak across your sky.
The phases for the moon this month are new on the first, first quarter on the 8th, full on the 16th, last quarter on the 23rd and new again on the 30th.
Would you like to have a really cool starchart? You can go to www.skymaps.com and download a starchart for the current month.
Check out this really cool website for some fantastic images by one of our very own local amateur astronomers.
The photo below is courtesy of Mike Fleenor. Mike lives here in Knoxville. Be sure to check out his website and enjoy the wonderful astrophotographs by Mike that he so kindly shares with us.
Comet Macholz by Mike Fleenor