While Mars is nowhere near as bright as Jupiter (or Venus), it now easily outshines Saturn and rivals the night sky’s brightest luminaries Vega and Arcturus. ![]() Mars continues to steadily brighten as it marches toward its closest approach to Earth in December. Jupiter’s turn in opposition with the Sun occurs next month, on September 26th. Brilliant Jupiter peeks above the eastern horizon a few minutes before 11 pm EDT on August 1st, and by 8:30 pm on the 31st. Jupiter resides in the non-zodiac constellation Cetus the Whale just below Pisces’s southern border, and well to the east of its gas giant sibling Saturn, which it follows for 2 hours. The ascendence of Cassiopeia and Pegasus above the eastern horizon can only mean one thing: the season of autumn is waiting on our doorstep. Also, the Great Square of Pegasus, which consists of four stars in the form of a rectangle lying on its edge, can be seen rising in the east. And the Summer Triangle, which consists of Vega in the constellation Lyra, Deneb in Cygnus, and Altair in Aquila, stands high in the east-northeast.ĭuring the late evening hours, the W-shaped constellation Cassiopeia is rising low in the northeast. To the upper left of the cat’s eyes is the “teapot” of Sagittarius, an easy grouping to identify. The “cat’s eyes,” a pair of unequally bright stars – Shaula and Lesath – are located at the end of the tail. The body of the Scorpion snakes down toward the horizon and then upward into a curved stinger. To Spica’s far left is orange-red Antares in Scorpius, which stands low in the south-southwest. Thuban is only about one-fifth as bright as Polarisįacing south, get one last glimpse of the spring star Spica in Virgo as it sets in the southwest. Draco is especially notable because one of its stars, Alpha Draconis, or Thuban (meaning “serpent”), was the polestar some 4,700 years ago, at about the time the Pyramids of Egypt were being built. Snaking its way around the Little Dipper is Draco, the Dragon, a large but relatively faint summer constellation. But Polaris is 430 light years distant, or over 10 times farther than Arcturus and 5 times farther than the stars comprising the Big Dipper.Įxtending above Polaris is the Little Dipper, the most famous asterism within Ursa Minor, the Little Bear. ![]() Arcturus is only 37 light years away, while most of the stars in the Ursa Major cluster lie at roughly 80 light years from us. The two front stars in the Dipper point to Polaris, the North Star, while the arc of the Dipper’s handle leads to the orange giant star Arcturus, which stands high in the west. Facing north, the Big Dipper, a part of the spring constellation Ursa Major, is dipping into the northwest. Stars and ConstellationsĪs darkness falls on August evenings, the constellations of summer – and also a few left over from spring – begin to emerge from the glow of twilight. Moon’s Phases in August - Full “Sturgeon Moon” on Aug. 1st Sun rises at 6:28 am and sets at 7:36 pm on Aug. Sunrise and Sunset Times (Eastern Daylight Time) - Sun rises at 6:00 am and sets at 8:16 pm on Aug.
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