August 2010

The night sky as seen at 23:00 on the 1st of August, 22:00 on the 15th and at 21:00 on the 31st.

The cardinal points of the compass show the view of the horizon in that direction. For example, if you printed out the image below, to see the stars facing north, you would rotate the picture so that N is on the bottom. The stars will then line up with the actual stars in the sky when looking north.

Mercury is not visible this month.

Venus, Mars and Saturn are close together and just above the horizon at sunset at the beginning of the month.

By the end of the month only Venus is visible above the horizon after sunset.

Jupiter rises well before midnight now and by the end of the month is visible higher in the south east sky.

M 11 the Wild Duck Cluster in Scutum is a very rich and compact open cluster that is easy to see with binoculars.

Sagittarius has many easy to see nebulae and clusters, although a good view south is necessary. M 8 the Lagoon nebula is easy to see with binoculars. M 16 the Eagle nebula, is a nebula that also contains an open cluster. It is easy to see with binoculars. M 17 the Omega nebula is easy to see eith binoculars and may just be visible with the unaided eye. M 18 is an open cluster easy to see with binoculars. M 22 is the brightest of the globular clusters and was the first one discovered. It can be seen with the unaided eye. M 24 is known as the Sagittarius Star Cloud and is visible to the unaided eye.

Constellations best placed for observing are Lyra, Sagittarius and Scutum.

The Perseid meteor shower is the best known meteor shower. It radiates from the constellation of Perseus. It is active between July 17th and August 24th. At the beginning of August you can expect to see up to 5 meteors and hour. By the 10th this will have risen to about 15 an hour. The maximum is on August 12th where you can expect to see in excess of 100 meteors an hour. This will drop down to about 10 meteors an hour by the 15th then tailing off until the shower ends on the 24th. Unlike last year the moon sets just after sunset so viewing conditions will be excellent if the sky is clear.