Venus blazes bright in August sky

August, the eighth month, was named in honor of Augustus Caesar, emperor of the Roman Empire from about 30 B.C. to A.D. 14.

Focus on the planets

Mercury appears briefly very low on the western horizon around midmonth. Look for the innermost planet about a half-hour after sunset to the extreme lower right of Venus. It sets soon thereafter so you will have to be quick to catch a glimpse of the elusive planet.

Venus, in contrast to its neighbor Mercury, is prominent as it blazes well up on the western horizon after sunset. Look to the upper right of Venus for the bright star Denebola.

Mars is at conjunction, or on the opposite side of the sun as viewed from Earth, and is lost to view for the next few months.

Jupiter begins to emerge from the morning twilight in late August and is the brightest object in the morning sky but remains too close to the horizon to offer good viewing. The best time to check on Jupiter is at month’s end when the giant planet lies very close to the Praesepe or Beehive star cluster.

Saturn rises in the predawn hours and slowly moves eastward almost on the ecliptic to enter the tip of Orion at month’s end. The crescent moon will pass from the west of Saturn to its east on the nights of Aug. 4-5. The rings of Saturn are reported to be well-placed for viewing this month.

Uranus and Neptune are located high in the northern skies in the eastern and western portions of Capricornus respectively. The green disk of Uranus and the blue disk of Neptune should be readily visible around midnight.

Pluto may be found in Ophiuchus by serious planet chasers with powerful telescopes and finder’s charts.

Our celestial neighborhood

In November 1967, Jocelyn Bell, a graduate student studying the skies with Cambridge University’s radio telescope, was startled to find a regular radio pulse of about 1.34 seconds coming from deep space.

Some researchers excitedly proposed that it was a signal from a civilization in another galaxy, leading Bell and her adviser Anthony Hewish to consider naming it LGM for “little green men.” But the rapid discovery of three other sources, with pulses ranging from 0.2 seconds to 1.5 seconds, led them to seek a more mundane celestial origin for the radio sources now named “pulsars.”

The explanation for pulsars, however, is almost as strange as an alien contact. Today the radio pulses are thought to come from spinning neutron stars. The latter are the remains of massive stars that undergo gigantic explosions called supernovae. Neutron stars are incredibly dense bodies so heavy that a sugar cube-size lump would weigh 100 million tons!

Astronomers do not understand fully how pulsars operate but the theory is that they give off regular bursts of energy as they spin, somewhat analogous to the beams of light from a lighthouse.

August events

1 Sunrise 5:21 a.m.; sunset, 8:02 p.m. Lammas, a cross-quarter day marking the midpoint between the summer solstice and fall equinox. Moon in last quarter, 6:24 a.m.

8 New moon, 3:15 p.m.

10 Moon at perigee, or closest approach to the Earth, today. The sun enters Leo on the ecliptic.

11 Look to the west at twilight for the waxing crescent moon to the upper right of Venus.

12 The Perseid meteor shower peaks tonight. The Perseid showers begin low in the northeast at dusk and continue to end high in the east by dawn. They are fast-moving, often leave persistent trails, and have a rate of one every minute or so.

15 Moon in last quarter, 6:12 a.m. Look for orange Antares to the lower left of the moon.

16 Antares is to the moon’s lower right tonight.

22 Full moon, 6:29 p.m. The full moon of August is called variously the Grain Moon or Green Corn Moon.

23 The sun enters the astrological sign of Virgo although, astronomically, it still is in Leo.

26 The moon is at apogee, or greatest distance from the Earth, today.

31 Moon in last quarter, 10:32 p.m. About an hour after sunset tonight, Venus is extremely near the bright star Spica. Mercury is to the duo’s lower right low on the western horizon. Sunrise, 5:56 a.m.; sunset, 7:15 p.m.