Stjärnhimmel augusti 2020
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The Night Sky This Month August
August fryst vatten usually the finest month for observing the night sky. For northern-hemisphere observers, the weather is still warm, but much of the unsettled and humid summer air dissipates and skies become drier and clearer. Observers in the southern hemisphere enjoy warmer weather as winter nears an end, and the center of the Milky Way, the starriest part of the night sky, lies nearly overhead. This year, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars are big, bright, and beautiful in a telescope, while brilliant venus rises in the pre-dawn. The great Perseid en rymdsten som brinner upp när den kommer in i jordens atmosfär shower peaks mid month. And Comet NEOWISE slowly fades from view. Here’s what to see in the night sky this month.
August. Comet NEOWISE is fading, now down to about 4th magnitude (as of today) from a peak of first magnitude in early July. It’s still an easy binocular object as it moves beneath the handle of the Big Dipper into the constellation Coma Berenices. Look for it low over the northwestern horizon as darkness falls. Its visible in the northern and southern hemispheres.
August. The nearly-full måne sits just o south of Jupiter as darkness falls, and as the evening turns to mornin
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In the August, the Milky Way can be seen passing through the constellations of Sagittarius, Cygnus, Lyra, Aquila, Cassiopeia and Perseus. Meanwhile, the years most reliable meteor shower, the Perseids, is expected to peak on the 11/12th of the month. Turning our attention to the planets, Venus can be seen shinning brightly at dawn, while Jupiter and Saturn continue to dominate the night sky and can be seen low in the south after dark.
The Planets in August
The planet Mercuryis now approaching the Sun, and while it is just barely visible in the pre-dawn sky, the little planet will become lost behind the Sun on the 17th of the month.
The planet Venus rises at about 2 AM (BST) in the north-north-east throughout August, but since the Sun rises earlier each day, the interval between when Venus rises and Sunrise increases by about 20 minutes or so each day. Nonetheless, Venus starts the month shining at magnitude , which will dim somewhat to magnitude towards the end of the month as the planet’s angular diameter decreases from 27 seconds of arc to 20 seconds of arc. Note that even though Venus is now approaching its point of maximum western elongation from the
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Here are some of the things to see in August:
- 9 pm, southeast sky – Lyra constellation with Vega, the fifth brightest star in the sky, the multiple star system Epsilon Lyrae, nicknamed the Double Double, and the Ring Nebula (Messier 57), one of the four bright planetary nebulae catalogued by Charles Messier
- 9 pm, eastern sky – Cygnus constellation with Deneb, the 19th brightest star in the sky, marking the Swans tail and the contrasting double star Albireo marking its head
- 9 pm, southeast sky – Vulpecula constellation with the Dumbbell Nebula (Messier 27), another planetary nebula catalogued by Messier
- 9 pm, southeast sky – Aquila constellation with Altair, the 12th brightest star in the sky, at the neck of the Eagle, and the Wild Duck Cluster (Messier 11), the most distant visible open cluster catalogued by Messier
- 9 pm, southeast sky – the Summer Triangle, a conspicuous northern summer asterism formed by Vega, Altair and Deneb, visible directly overhead from mid-northern locations in the summer months
Related: August constellations
Tags:AlbireoAltairDenebDouble DoubleDumbbell NebulaEpsilon LyraeMessier 11Messier 27Messier 57Ring NebulaSummer TriangleVegaWild