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Monthly Guide for August 2010

Keiran

By Keiran
in Observing - Monthly Guides

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Keiran

Keiran

Posted
Posted

Hi all,

This is next months observing events....

Lunar Phases for August 2010:

Last Quarter - 3rd

New Moon - 10th

First Quarter - 17th

Full Moon - 24th

The Planets for August 2010:

Mercury - Too close to the sun for useful observations

Venus - Sets soon after the sun during August

Mars - As Venus, Mars sets soon after the sun

Jupiter - A great month for Jupiter. By mid month Jupiter starts rising at 10pm but is still best seen in the early hours (1am-3am). Should put on a great show if the condition allow.

Saturn - Another evening planet setting soon after the sun.

Uranus - Uranus will be Jupiter's sidekick for August. The pair are only 2.2deg apart, so a widefield setup should have no problems showing them together. Although Uranus will only appear as a star at those magnifications.

Neptune - Rises earlier than Jupiter/Uranus, so at it's best around midnight.

Monthly Events for August 2010:

Sunday 1st August 2010:

Jupiter and the Moon will be near to each other in the beginning of the night to the East.

Venus, Saturn and Mars, will be meeting up around about 21:00 forming a triangle in the West.

Monday 2nd August 2010:

Jupiter will be rising to its peak with the Great Red Spot (GRS) being close to centre.

Tuesday 3rd August 2010:

Moon Phase: Last Quarter at around 05:00

Wednesday 4th August 2010:

Pleiades and the Moon will be close to each other in the early hours of the morning, Hopefully creating a good photo opportunity.

Thursday 5th August 2010:

The Comet, Tempel 2, can be seen to the East, left of the star Eta Cet, in the early morning.

Friday 6th August 2010:

The Galilean moons of Jupiter can be seen to the East of it, at around 02:30.

Lota Aquarid Meteor Shower will be at its pinnacle, with an estimated 8 an hour.

Saturday 7th August 2010:

This will be the best time to view Mercury, at its greatest eastern elongation.

M35 and the Moon can be seen close together at around 03:30.

Check out the GRS on Jupiter around 03:30 to see it in the center of the planet.

Sunday 8th August 2010:

The moon will be reaching its 0% from this day, and August’s dark session will begin.

Monday 9th August 2010:

Once again Saturn, Mars and Venus meet to form a triangle in the West; this can be seen around 21:15.

Tuesday 10th August 2010:

Moon Phase: New Moon.

Thursday 12th August 2010:

The Perseids Meteor Shower will be at its peak on this night. With a predicted 60 an hour.

Saturday 14th August 2010:

The transition of Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, across the GRS can be seen at around 03:50.

Monday 16th August 2010:

Moon Phase: First Quarter at around 18:15.

Wednesday 18th August 2010:

This will be the night to see the Kappa Cygnid Meteor Shower, with a predicted 3 an hour, with the odd fireball.

Thursday 19th August 2010:

Jupiter reaches its peak in the southern sky at about 03:20, with the GRS being in the centre of the planet.

Friday 20th August 2010:

This is the best time to view Venus.

Tuesday 24th August 2010:

Moon Phase: Full at around 17:05. The smallest of the year.

Thursday 26th August 2010:

95% full Moon, can be viewed with the close by planet of Jupiter. This can be seen from 21:15 and getting closer over the night, its closest being at 02:00.

Sunday 29th August 2010:

Jupiter's GRS crosses its centre at around 01:30.

Tuesday 31st August 2010:

Jupiter and Uranus are at their closest this month.

I hope that this helps you all over the month, with some great sights to see.

Thanks to Russ for help with some of the research

Keiran

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callump

callump

Posted
Posted

Sorry if i'm being picky, but how do you reconcile the statements

"Mercury - Too close to the sun for useful observations"

and

Aug 7

"This will be the best time to view Mercury, at its greatest eastern elongation."

It looks to me that it will be pretty unobservable on Aug 7 - to my mind there is no "best time" to view Mercury in August...

And in the couple of items about Jupiter I think know what you mean by 'reaching its peak' - but I had to think about it (you mean transit, i think) and others may be confused about what 'peak' you mean (brightness, closeness, best...).

Also minor typo - it's the Iota Aquarids.

/callump

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Big Dipper

Big Dipper

Posted
Posted

Great minds think alike Keiran as I approached one of the admins here a few weeks back about filling in the SGL calendar from a source which I've used for a number of years now on various astro forums (with the consent of the author, a chap called Dave Mitsky).

As I filled in the SGL calendar last night using Dave's August 2010 calendar (events for the next seven days gets shown at the foot of the SGL index page which is very useful) I hope you don't mind if I add a quick footnote to credit him for his continued supply of data which I know that many of us amateur astronomers really appreciate.

Dave's full calendar for August, which features on quite a number of astro forums, can be found here & includes some very useful links for the month ahead, too.

Anyway thanks for the info on this thread too Keiran - much appreciated.

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