Sky Watch: August

By: Lulu Gleason & Elly G.

There seems to be a bit of a buzz amongst astronomers and astrologers this month. With mercury in retrograde we get an opportunity to gaze at some amazing sights. Even if we’re all having a terrible time communicating with everyone because of the retrograde, it will still be nice to see some beautiful sights. Jupiter will grace us with its presents this month and a regular ‘old geezer’ of a meteor shower straight out of Perseus. What’s on the way?

Jupiter:
From the 1st to the 31st, we’ll be able to get a chance to see this super gas planet in the skies. As an added bonus, we’ll even have the chance to gaze at Jupiter’s moons Io, Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto. What’s great about this is that you can see the raging surface with a small telescope or binoculars.

They’ll look like little objects near the very bright Jupiter. For the entire month of August, Jupiter will get brighter and brighter until the 31st where its long trek across our solar system will begin all over again. If you’re lucky, you could even see the famous red spot of Jupiter. Don’t miss out! Interesting fact: Jupiter only seems to come by every 5 years and travels 2.8 billion km.

Perseid Meteor shower:
Though it might be a bit of a disappointment due to the full moon, we’re still excited for this shower. If you wake up early in the pre dawn hours on the 10th, you may be rewarded with brighter meteors. The Perseid meteor shower won’t be quite as bright as usual, but you should still try and catch it.

At the peak of this shower, the meteors come fast, and will be rather recognizable. The best time to see them is between midnight and dawn on the 12th or the 13th of August. This is one of the most famous meteor showers we get. We have records as far back into 36 A.D. from numerous Asiatic astrologers.

Astrologers have estimated that the showers will begin around the 10th and will most likely last until the 15th. The full moon will take place on August 13th and the light will over power the meteor shower. Interesting fact: The reason behind the name Perseid is because the meteors seem to be coming out of the constellation Perseus.

We’re not sure about you but we’ll be will be out and about in the night with our binoculars and telescopes to see some of these awe inspiring finds! Wish us luck in getting some pictures.

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