A busy month for the Moon, besides her usual movements she’s involved in two eclipses, but more later.
The Moon will be New on the 1st, and at first Quarter on the 8th rising at 2.30pm and setting at 10.30pm.
She’ll be Full on the 16th rising at 8.20pm and setting at 5am, and at Last Quarter on the 24th, rising at 10.45pm and setting at 4.15pm the next day.
Two eclipses, both partial. The first is a Solar Eclipse, on the 1st, starting at 9.30am, and lasting till 11.10am. If it’s clear or thin cloud, look to the east, carefully, with at least a number 11 welding glass, and you’ll see the Moon sliding in front of the Sun, with up to a maximum of 30% covered in Doncaster. It can be dangerous to look directly at the Sun, even during a partial eclipse, so take care, and don’t use a telescope or binoculars unless fitted with a suitably filter.
The second eclipse is on the 16th, and is a Lunar one. Look to the east at 8.30pm, the eclipse will start as the Moon rises. The sun will be sinking in the west at the same time of course, casting the Earth’s shadow onto the face of the Moon.
It’ll be visible from then and continue till about midnight, when it’ll be some 24° up in the south. A much more laid back occasion, but with more mystique than the partial solar, as it’s colour is not easy to forecast, varying from near black to coppery red. Being caused by the shadow of the earth cast 230000miles onto the Moon, it’s edge will be indistinct, hence the difficulty in exact timing. The solar one will be of the actual Moon over the face of the Sun so the edges will be easier to time. I’d appreciate a sight of pictures you may take of either. We’ll put any we take on our Photo Blog at http://donastro.blogspot.com/.
Planets. The major one is Jupiter this month, in the sky every night, low in the south till about 2am. Big and bright, at -2.6mag, not high up enough to make out much detail on the disc, but the two major bands should be discernable in a telescope. The four Galilean moons will be easy to see and fascinating to watch their changing positions.
On the 1st, in the west, immediately after the Sun has set, you may be able to see, Mercury, a very thin crescent Moon, bright Venus, dim Saturn and dimmer Mars, following the Sun down, in line astern. Mars, Saturn and Venus will be about a fist at arm’s length apart and better seen with binoculars. But Mercury and the Moon will be too close to the Sun to risk your eyesight. However, on the next two evenings, things will be easier as Mercury and the Moon move away from the Sun, bringing all five within the space of three fists soon after sunset. By the 9th, Mercury, Venus and Saturn will be within one fist of each other, with Mars another fist to the left. On the 13th, Venus and Saturn will be a quarter of a degree apart with Mercury 3° to the right, very close to the horizon, but worth a picture again. On the 15th, Venus, Saturn and Mercury will be within 3 fingers of each other. By the 20th, dim Saturn will have edged too close to the Sun to seek, leaving the two brighter ones, Venus and Mercury, 20° further to the left within a finger of each other as they near dim Mars.
On the other side of the sky, other than bright Jupiter there will be dim Neptune rising at 9.30pm with brighter Uranus an hour and a half later. By month end they’ll be rising two hours earlier, and will be well placed to observe all night. Neptune will need a telescope to appreciate its tiny blue disc and Uranus’s similarly blue disc will be just apparent in good binoculars.
Meteor showers. There are seven showers peaking in August but none has a rate of more than 5 an hour, other than the sometimes magnificent Persids, which peak on Tuesday the 12th and up to 90 an hour. Luckily the Moon will have set by midnight, so won’t be in the way as the shower’s peak is later. It’s a wide peak so should be worth watching any time within the week. Get your winter clothes on, a sleeping bag is not too much, and lie on the lawn on a garden lounger looking towards the Zenith, not in the direction of the constellation Perseus, so you’ll see a good sweep of their path across the sky.
For binoculars the Milky Way is the area to search, star clusters abound there, from Cassiopeia in the north to the centre of the galaxy in Sagittarius to the south. Favourite clusters are M11 in Scutum, M12 and M10 globulars in nearby Ophiuchus. The Dumbbell M27 in Vulpecula, a planetary nebula, the Ring, M57, another in Lyra. You must try M13 the big globular in Hercules, and its smaller brother M92. All these are visible in binoculars but better in a telescope. M31, the Andromeda Spiral, is coming up now and though a bit disappointing in binoculars, as you’ll see only the core as a glowing ball of wool, the thought that it’s a galaxy bigger than ours and is some 2.3 million lightyears away but still fills 3 moons worth of sky, will give you a buzz. The Double Cluster in Perseus is coming up too, a magnificent sight in binoculars or wide field telescope, NGC884 and NGC869 if you have a GOTO telescope. NGC457 is nearby, the ET cluster, two big eyes, arms outstretched and legs spread. Alcor and Mizar, the bump star in the handle of the Plough, see if you can make out both of the stars that make up the double that is Mizar, and the fainter one between Mizar and Alcor.
Satellites. The ISS will pass over Doncaster on the 1st at 9.26pm, from the west to the south east, but only getting 30° up, so not very bright. Then on the 2nd at 9.50pm from WSW to SSE and only 19° up. Again not bright.
There are plenty of Iridium flares though and some very bright.
Some of the brightest are
on the 3rd at 03.45.59, 52° up in the WNW
on the 4th at 00.35.44, 46° up in the SW
on the 7th at 03.30.40, 46° up in the WNW
on the 8th at 00.20.35, 41° up in the SW
on the 12th at 23.07.41, 22° up in the NNE
All the details at Heavens-above, of course.
Brian