{"id":1095,"date":"2024-07-31T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-31T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/?p=1095"},"modified":"2024-07-29T02:34:23","modified_gmt":"2024-07-29T02:34:23","slug":"august-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/august-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"August 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The moon’s at northern lunistice when August starts. It’s 28.5 degrees north of the equator on the 1st<\/sup>. It’s an old moon in the morning sky. You’ll see the waning crescent below Jupiter, Mars, and Aldebaran. The moon will be below and left of that trio from most of the northern hemisphere and below right of them from most of the southern hemisphere. The crescent moves through Gemini on the 2nd<\/sup> and 3rd<\/sup>. And the moon is new on the 4th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the evening sky, a waxing crescent passes by Venus and Mercury which are close to Regulus in Leo on the 5th<\/sup>. This grouping is best seen from near the equator and south of it. On the 7th<\/sup>, the moon’s moving into Virgo. As it passes the star Zaniah on the 8th<\/sup>, the moon’s going southward over the equator. The moon passes Spica on the 10th<\/sup> and moves to Libra on the 11th<\/sup>. First quarter occurs with the moon in Libra on the 12th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The moon spends the 13th<\/sup> and 14th<\/sup> in Scorpius. It’s entering Sagittarius at southern lunistice at 28.6 degrees on the 15th<\/sup>. After going through Capricornus on the 17th<\/sup> and 18th<\/sup>, the moon is full on the way into Aquarius on the 19th<\/sup>. It’s close to Saturn on the 20th<\/sup>. The next three mornings, the waning gibbous lunar disk is in Pisces. It’s going northward over the equator on the 22nd<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last quarter is on the 26th<\/sup> as the moon passes the Pleiades and approaches Jupiter and Mars again. By late in the month, those two planets have moved on past the Hyades. The moon passes Jupiter on the 27th<\/sup> and Mars on the 28th<\/sup>. On the 28th<\/sup>, the moon’s at northern lunistice again at 28.6 degrees. A waning crescent disk passes through Gemini again on the 29th<\/sup> and 30th<\/sup>. This time, the twins are higher in the morning sky at the same hour as before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, on the last day of August, the moon will be in Cancer north of the Beehive. Since the moon last passed Mercury, the messenger planet has crossed to the morning sky. You may be able to spot it below the moon on the 31st<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other lunar information for the month: apogee is on the 9th<\/sup> at 405,300 kilometers away and perigee is on the 21st<\/sup> at 360,000 kilometers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, more about this month’s planetary action. As August starts, Mars is close to Ain, the star opposite Aldebaran at the \u201ctop\u201d ends of the Hyades V. Jupiter is a little east of the V. Both planets are moving eastward. Mars is faster. It passes Jupiter on the 14th<\/sup> when they appear 0.3 degrees apart. By the end of the month, the red planet is approaching the feet of Gemini while Jupiter still has a way to go to get there, although the big planet has made progress getting away from Taurus and the Hyades. See this action in the morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you can find Uranus this month, it will likely be with binoculars. The planet’s between the Pleiades and the head of Cetus the sea monster. This is also a morning spectacle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturn is just east of Aquarius and moving retrograde. It rises in mid-evening when August starts. By the month’s end, the planet is just above the horizon rising at nightfall. The ringed planet will be at opposition on September 8th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the evening sky, Venus will remain an evening object all month, steadily heading deeper into the evening sky. As already mentioned, Mercury transitions from evening to morning. On the 1st<\/sup>, both planets appear about the same distance from Regulus, Mercury on one side, Venus on the other. While Mercury heads southward away from Regulus, it also begins heading westward on the 4th<\/sup>. Meanwhile, Venus passes the star on the north side on the 5th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mercury goes through inferior conjunction on the 19th<\/sup> and then reemerges as a morning object a few days later. Meanwhile, Venus stays close to the horizon for northern hemisphere observers. Its march into the evening sky is more obvious to southern sky watchers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Perseid meteor shower peaks on the 12th<\/sup> and 13th<\/sup>. You could see up to 100 meteors per hour if it’s a good year for it. The moon will have set during the ideal position for Perseus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Northern<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Northern<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Saturn<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Simulated<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Mars<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Visibility<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Venus<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Visibility<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Mars<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Uranus<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Visibility<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Venus<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Neptune<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Saturn<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Venus<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The moon’s at northern lunistice when August starts. It’s 28.5 degrees north of the equator on the 1st. It’s an old moon in the morning sky. You’ll see the waning crescent below Jupiter, Mars, and Aldebaran. The moon will be below and left of that trio from most of the northern hemisphere and below right […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-63"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1095"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1117,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095\/revisions\/1117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}