{"id":445,"date":"2019-07-28T17:37:21","date_gmt":"2019-07-28T17:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/?p=445"},"modified":"2020-10-01T03:43:57","modified_gmt":"2020-10-01T03:43:57","slug":"august-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/august-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"August 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mars, heading toward conjunction with\nthe sun in early September, begins and ends August with conjunctions\nwith the moon. Don’t count on seeing both. The second happens on the\nsame day as a new moon. The red planet will simply be too close to\nthe sun to see. Similar story for a close call with Venus on the\n24th<\/sup>. It would be wonderful to see them just 0.3\u00b0 apart.\nWell, I’ve long said that half the fun of astronomy is knowing what’s\nhappening even if the weather or other circumstances keep you from\nseeing it. Your best bet is to spot Mars 1.7\u00b0 south of a thin\ncrescent moon on the 1st<\/sup>. The best views will be from\naround 15\u00b0 south latitude where the ecliptic will be perpendicular\nto the horizon at sunset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Jupiter is in the south at sunset about\n7\u00b0 from Antares in Scorpius. The big planet appears stationary at\nthe start of this month. A waxing gibbous moon passes by on the 9th<\/sup>.\nIn the second half of the month, careful observers should notice that\nthe planet has resumed direct motion (going eastward). The actual\nstart of direct motion is on the 11th<\/sup>. Also, while it’s\neasiest to describe the planet as being close to Scorpius, it’s\nactually within the International Astronomical Union’s boundaries of\nOphiuchus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Saturn’s retrograde motion continues in\nSagittarius. The moon will be near on the 11th<\/sup> and 12th<\/sup>.\nThere’ll be an occultation visible from many South Pacific islands\nincluding the North Island of New Zealand. The central conjunction\ntime for the moon and Saturn is 9:53 Universal Time on the 12th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mercury is a morning object below\nGemini when August starts. It seems to hover in place for the first\nweek or so. After greatest elongation on the 9th<\/sup> at 19.0\u00b0\nwest of the sun, it rushes sunward across Cancer for a rendezvous\nwith the Beehive Cluster on the 17th<\/sup>. Leo’s head is rising\nin the second half of the month. Mercury is firmly in the\nconstellation when it becomes invisible by the end of August. The\nbest views of the messenger planet this month are from around 12\u00b0\nnorth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Venus is too close to the sun to see\nthis month. It’s in superior conjunction (on the other side of the\nsun) on the 12th<\/sup> and 13th<\/sup>. In the weeks ahead,\nthe goddess planet will begin an evening reign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venus is at perihelion on the 8th<\/sup>.\nIt will be 0.718 astronomical units from the sun. Mercury’s\nperihelion happens on the 20th<\/sup> at a distance of 0.307au.\nMars is at aphelion on the 26th<\/sup> with a distance of\n1.666au.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Another occultation to note is the moon\ncovering Tejat. The central conjunction time is 6:48 UT on the 26th<\/sup>.\nThe views are in the Atlantic Ocean from the Brazil Basin to the Gulf\nof Guinea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Perseid meteor shower peaks around\nAugust 12. A nearly full moon will make the fainter meteors hard or\nimpossible to see. This is mainly a northern hemisphere shower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A minor meteor shower, the Kappa\nCygnids, peaks on August 18. You may see less than five meteors per\nhour coming from one of the westernmost stars in Cygnus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moon phases and positions this month:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New moon on the 1st<\/sup>. First\nquarter on the 7th<\/sup>. Full moon on the 16th<\/sup>. Last\nquarter on the 23rd<\/sup>. New moon on the 30th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perigee on the 2nd<\/sup> at\n359,300 km center-to-center distance. Apogee on the 17th<\/sup>\nat 406,200 km. Perigee on the 30th<\/sup> at 357,200 km.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The moon is on the equator going south\non the 5th<\/sup>, at southern lunistice on the 12th<\/sup>,\ngoes north again on the 19th<\/sup>, and at northern lunistice on\nthe 26th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some conjunctions this month.\nThe events of the 29th<\/sup> and 30th<\/sup> are listed here\nfor informational reasons. It will not be feasible to see Mercury,\nRegulus, Mars, and Venus when they are so close to the sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1 \u2013 An 18-hour old moon is 1.6\u00b0 from\nMars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2 \u2013 moon and Regulus 3.1\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6 \u2013 moon and Spica 7.2\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8 \u2013 Mercury and Pollux 9.1\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9 \u2013 Moon and Antares 7.7\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9 \u2013 Moon and Jupiter 2.4\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

12 \u2013 Moon and Saturn 0.0\u00b0,\noccultation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

12 \u2013 Moon and Pluto 0.1\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

13 \u2013 Jupiter and Antares 6.7\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

13 \u2013 Venus at superior conjunction\n1.3\u00b0 from the sun<\/p>\n\n\n\n

17 \u2013 Moon and Neptune 3.5\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

18 \u2013 Mars and Regulus 0.7\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

21 \u2013 Venus and Regulus 0.9\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

21 \u2013 Moon and Uranus 4.4\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

24 \u2013 Moon and Aldebaran 2.4\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

24 \u2013 Moon and Venus 0.3\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

27 \u2013 Moon and Pollux 6.0\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

29 \u2013 Mercury and Regulus 1.3\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

29 \u2013 Moon and Regulus 3.1\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

30 \u2013 Moon and Mercury 1.9\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

30 \u2013 Moon and Mars 2.9\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

30 \u2013 Moon and Venus 2.8\u00b0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mars, heading toward conjunction with the sun in early September, begins and ends August with conjunctions with the moon. Don’t count on seeing both. The second happens on the same day as a new moon. The red planet will simply be too close to the sun to see. Similar story for a close call with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445","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=445"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":456,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445\/revisions\/456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}