In August evenings, Saturn is visible to the southeast, and after 11 p.m. Jupiter also rises. Mars is visible after midnight, and Venus is barely visible 30 minutes before sunrise. Also in August, you can see the so-called “summer triangle”, which consists of three very bright stars: Altair, Vega and Deneb, according to the astronomical calendar published by the Admiral Vasile Urceanu Observatory.

The month in August 2022

On August 5, the First Square phase begins, at 1:07 p.m. Tonight, the Moon is highest in the sky at sunset.

August 12 full moon, at 3:36. On the night of August 11-12, the Moon is visible all night.

On August 19, the Last Square will be held at 7:35. In the second half of the night, the moon is visible in the sky.

On August 27, the phase of the new moon comes, at 11:17. The moon cannot be seen between August 26 and 28.

The course of the planets in August 2022

In August evenings, Saturn is visible to the southeast, and after 11 p.m. Jupiter also rises. Mars is visible after midnight, and Venus is barely visible 30 minutes before sunrise.

In August, Saturn is the first planet to rise. It looks like a simple star, not very bright, but it is the brightest star in the area where it is located.

You can see it around 11:00 PM in the southeast, not very high in the sky, as a relatively bright, unblinking star. At night, it rises into the sky and remains visible.

Below the planet are two less bright stars that are part of the Capricorn constellation.

On August 14, Saturn will be at its shortest distance from the Earth (1.3 billion km) and on the opposite side of the Sun, as seen from our planet, that is, at opposition. This is the period when the planet is best seen. The moon passes through this area on the evenings of August 10, 11 and 12.

Jupiter rises two hours after Saturn, already high in the sky around midnight. It can be seen if you look to the east and southeast around midnight as a very bright star.

It is located in the constellation Pisces, an area of ​​the sky without very bright stars, so it is the brightest object in the area. To the right of Jupiter, not so bright, is Saturn. The planet is twice as close to us as Saturn.

It remains in the sky all night and will be visible all year round. The moon is near the planet on the night of August 14-15 and 15-16.

The third planet that can be seen on August nights is Mars, which is visible starting at 1 o’clock in the direction of the eastern horizon. Mars is brighter than Saturn, but not as bright as Jupiter, and is visible as an orange star among the stars in the constellation Taurus.

You can look for it around 3 a.m. when it will be fairly high in the eastern sky. Above the planet is a cluster of stars called the Comb, and below it is a bright star called Aldebaran.

Mars is still far from us and cannot be seen very well in telescopes, but in December it will approach Earth.

The planets Uranus and Neptune were also in the night sky, but they cannot be seen with the naked eye. On August 11, Uranus is 90 degrees west of the Sun, meaning it is highest in the sky at sunrise.

On August 14, the planet Saturn will be at its closest distance from Earth – 1.32 billion km. On the same day, it will be in opposition to the Sun. The planet is visible all night in the sky. On August 23, the planet Mercury is at the greatest distance from the Sun, in aphelion, at a distance of 69.8 million km.

On August 27, Mars is at an angle of 90 degrees west of the Sun, that is, at sunrise it is highest in the sky. On August 27, Mercury is at its maximum angular distance from the Sun and becomes visible in the evening sky.

The constellation is visible in the evening sky

On August evenings, the Summer Triangle, consisting of the stars Altair, Vega and Deneb, stood high in the sky. The three bright stars are 16, 25, and 3,000 light-years away from us, and their luminosity is 12, 61, and 300,000 times that of the Sun. Near the center of the triangle is the star Albireo, which symbolizes the head of a swan (Swan). Its long neck extended to the northeast, and its tail was the star Deneb. Swan wings rise from the gamma star to the east and northwest.

In the west, we meet the star Arcturus, which is getting closer to the horizon. In the northwest, close to the horizon, we find the stars of Ursa Major, part of the Ursa Major constellation. The stars forming a quadrilateral symbolize the “chariot”, and three located almost on the same line make up the “bird” of the chariot. Americans and English call these seven stars “Polish”. For them, the chariot is a cup, and the sheep is the handle of the pole.

In the southwest we find the star Antares, which represents the heart of the scorpion (Scorpion). The name of the star comes from the fact that it had the same color as the planet Mars (Antares = anti Ares). The scorpion’s claws are formed by three stars west of Antares, and the S-shaped tail is in the south only where the southern horizon is clear.

In the southeast, close to the horizon, we meet a lone star. This is Fomalhaut (the name means “mouth of the fish”) in the constellation of the Australian Fish (Pisces Austrinus). The star is about the same distance from us as Vega, and for those living at 35° south latitude, it can be seen as high in the sky as Vega is from us.

In the east – a large square of the constellation Pegasus, behind it – Andromeda – a sign that autumn is near.

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