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August 2008 Eye on the Sky
Contributed by: Mike Hotka on 7/21/2008

August sports many celestial highlights for those that dare to look up. The five brightest planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will be visible this month along with the annual Perseid Meteor Shower.

As August starts out, look to the western sky, about 30 minutes after sunset, to find the planets Mars, Saturn and Venus. Venus will be low along the horizon, shining at a magnitude of -3.9. To the upper left of Venus will be Saturn, shining at a dimmer magnitude of +0.8. To the upper left of Saturn will be the dull red glow of Mars, shining at an even dimmer magnitude of 1.7. The thin crescent Moon will skirt under this trio on the nights of August 2nd, 3rd and 4th.

By August 9th, Mercury will have popped above the western horizon. Shining at a magnitude of -0.9, Mercury, Venus and Saturn will make a nice grouping for the next 2 weeks.

By August 12th, Venus will be just below and to the right of Saturn with Mercury a bit farther to the lower right. By the 13th, Venus has passed Saturn with Mercury getting closer. On the 15th, Mercury has passed Saturn and is getting closer to Venus where on the 19th, Mercury is just below Venus with Saturn off to the lower right of this pair. On the night of the 20th, Mercury has passed Venus in this part of the sky. This dramatic movement is due in part to the motion of the Earth orbiting the Sun, but the visual effect is just stunning.

The fifth planet to be seen is Jupiter, which will be shining at a magnitude of -2.6. Find Jupiter high in the southeastern sky as evening twilight darkens. August is a good month to view Jupiter through a telescope. The planet's disk is large enough to easily see the red and white alternating colored cloud bands on the surface and the 4 largest moons of Jupiter.

On the evening of August 12th and the morning of the 13th, the annual Perseid Meteor Shower will be at its peak activity. A near full Moon will hamper seeing the fainter meteors, but one will see as many as 30 brighter meteors per hour. The meteors can be seen as soon as it get sufficiently dark, but the peak activity of this shower for Colorado observers will be after 11 PM. Properly protect yourself from mosquitoes and place a blanket or lawn chair in a place away from house and street lights. By casting your gaze high in the northeastern sky, you will see many bright, long meteor streaks from this shower.

On Friday August 1st, on the CU Boulder campus, the Fiske Planetarium is having a wonderful show called "Birth of Stars and Planets", by Ben Brown. On Friday, August 8th, the show will be "Deep Impact with Live Update. Each planetarium show is followed by telescope viewing at the Sommers-Bausch Observatory, weather permitting. For more information, visit the web site http://lyra.colorado.edu/sbo/public/openhouse.html or call 303-492-5002.

The Little Thompson Observatory, in Berthoud, is holding their monthly Open House on the August 15th. An exciting talk about astronomy starts the evening off at 7 PM, followed by telescope observing, weather permitting. The observatory is at the northeast edge of Berthoud High School. More information can be found at http://www.starkids.org or by calling 970-613-7793.


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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Mike Hotka

Broomfield , CO

Mike Hotka has posted 46 stories and 0 comments since joining on 11/30/2005. Mike Hotka 's average story rating is 4.95.
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