Sky Diary August 2016

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NORTHERN HEMISPHERE AUGUST 15TH AT 23:00 UT ---- SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE AUGUST 15TH AT 23:00 UT
Click on all images to enlarge

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During August the nights are steadily getting longer. Here in the UK sunset on 1 August is at 7:48pm UT and at the end of the month the sun sets an hour earlier. In the southern hemisphere at latitude -30° the sunsets at 5:28pm on 1 August and 5:44pm at the end of the month. The time difference is due to the Earth’s axial tilt of 23½°; it is summer in the northern hemisphere so the North Pole is pointing sunwards, and the South Pole is pointing away from the Sun.

From mid month the planet Venus shining at Mag -3.9 becomes visible in the western sky after sunset. Its elongation from the sun increases from 16° to 23° during the month. Its phase is almost full, while is angular size is about 10.4 arc seconds. There are two nice photo opportunities to look forward to this month. Venus is 1.1°N of Regulus on 5 August and just 0.07°N of Jupiter on the 27^th when it will be nice to see both planets close together. Incidentally, the NASA JUNO probe will passing close to Jupiter on 27^th making its first science observation.

The planet Mars lies in the constellation of Scorpius during August, and is slowly fading from Mag -0.7 to -0.3. The planets small angular size is also decreasing, and this will be 11.6 arc seconds mid month so that a moderate size telescope will be needed to observe the planet. Mars is 1.8° N of Antares on 24 August and 4 ° S of Saturn on 25^th August.

The planet Jupiter shining at -1.7 is visible through out August, and continues to be a lovely sight in small telescopes. There will be an occultation of Jupiter by the Moon at 04 h UT on 6^th August, which will be visible from: South East Asia, Papua New Guinea, NW Australia, and Pacific Islands.

The planet Saturn shining at Mag +0.3 is visible throughout the night. It will be 12°S of the Moon on 12 August.

The planet Uranus shining at Mag 5.8 lies in the middle of Pisces (The fishes). On Aug 1^st RA 01h 31m 42s DEC +8° 55’ 04” & Aug 15^th RA 01h 31m 19s DEC +8° 52’ 28”

The planet Neptune shining at Mag 7.8 lies next to the star Lambda-Aquarii. On Aug 1^st Mag +7.8 RA 22h 52m 56s DEC -8° 03’ 54.8”

SKY DIARY [All times are UT : Universal Time]

02 21h : New Moon	18 09h ; Full Moon
04 06h : Venus 4 deg N of the Moon	19 12h : Neptune 1.1 deg S of Moon (Occultation)
04 22h : Mercury 0.6 deg N of the Moon	20 12h : Pallas at opposition
05 09h : Venus 1.1 deg N of Regulus	22 10h : Uranus 3 deg S of the Moon
06 04h :Jupiter 0.2 deg N of Moon (Occultation)	24 04h : Mars 1.8 deg N of Antares
10 00h : Moon at apogee	25 04h : Last Quarter
10 18h : First Quarter	25 17h : Aldebaran 0.2 deg S of Moon (Occultation)
11 22h : Mars 8 deg S of the Moon	25 18h : Mars 4 deg S of the Moon
12 12h : Saturn 4 deg S of the Moon	27 05h : Mercury 5 deg S of Venus
13 18h : Saturn stationary	27 22h : Venus 0.07 deg N of Jupiter
16 21h : Mercury greatest Elong E (27 degrees)	30 01h : Mercury stationary

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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