August Skies 2026, and astrophiz podcast

To be read in conjunction with the astrophiz podcast #239

   

North-Eastern horizon on the morning of Tuesday, August 4 as seen from Adelaide at 5:41 ACST (90 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen).  Saturn is high above the northern horizon with the waning Moon nearby.  Mars is low in the east, below the bright red star Aldebaran, forming a second tip to the horns of Taurus the Bull pairing with Elnath (Beta Tauri). Saturn is rising before midnight, but is still best for telescopic observation in the morning, and its rings are widening.  The inset shows the telescopic view of Saturn at this time.  Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at roughly the equivalent local time  (90 minutes before sunrise).	North-Eastern horizon on the morning of Sunday, August 9 as seen from Adelaide at 5:41 ACST (90 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen).  Saturn is high above the north-western horizon.  Mars is low in the east, below the bright red star Aldebaran, forming a second tip to the horns of Taurus the Bull pairing with Elnath (Beta Tauri).  The Moon is near Mars and will occult Elnath at roughly 4:30 am everywhere but WA. For detailed times see below.  Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at roughly the equivalent local time  (90 minutes before sunrise) .
North-Eastern horizon on the morning of Saturday, August 15 as seen from Adelaide at 5:31 ACST (90 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Mars is at its closest to the open cluster M35. The inset is the binocular view of Mars and the cluster. Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at roughly the equivalent local time  (90 minutes before sunrise).	Western sky on the evening of Sunday, August 16 as seen from Adelaide at 19:19 ACST (90 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen). Venus, and the thin crescent Moon are close together, with the bright star Spica above. The inset shows the telescopic view of Venus at this time. Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at roughly the equivalent local time  (60 minutes after sunset).

Evening Sky:

Venus climbs higher in the evening sky and is now in Virgo and well visible after the sky is fully dark. Venus is a distinct “Half Moon” phase in even small telescopes. On the 15th, Venus reaches its greatest elongation 46° east of the Sun. On the 15th, Venus, crescent Moon and Spica form a line in evening sky. On the 16th, Venus is less than 2°from the 4-day-old waxing crescent Moon, an impressive sight in the evening sky.

Saturn s is low in the late evening skies in August in Pisces Saturn rises around 10:30 pm at the start of the month in the eastern sky. By the end of the month, Saturn is rising at 8:30 pm ahead of its September opposition. Saturn is still best in the morning sky for most of August. 

Jupiter is lost in the twilight glow.

Morning sky:

Mercury returns to the morning skies but remains low in the twilight and difficult to see.  

Mars is above the eastern horizon at astronomical twilight in the morning. Mars in Gemini. On the 3rd the Red Planet passes with 1.5° of the Crab Nebula (M1), the famous supernova remnant (difficult in binoculars). Between the 14th and 17th, Mars is within 1° of the open cluster M35 (visible in binoculars). 

On the 9th the crescent Moon is near Mars very close to Elnath (Beta Tauri, occultation).  

Saturn Saturn is about 7° from the waning Moon on the 4th. 

First Quarter Moon at 17:00 ACST (06:30 UT) on August 20 as seen from Adelaide. The moon is in twilight, but the lunar X is still visible.The inset shows the Lunar X (top) and Lunar V (bottom),

Occultation of Elnath, 9 August, 2026

The eastern sky at 04:54 ACST Sunday, August 9, as seen from Adelaide. The Moon is about to finish occulting the bright star Elnath. The inset shows the telescopic view at the time. (click to embiggen).	The eastern sky at 04:34 AEST Sunday, August 9, as seen from Brisbane. The Moon is about to occult the bright star Elnath. The inset shows the telescopic view at the time. (click to embiggen).	The eastern sky at 04:41 AEST Sunday, August 9, as seen from Melbourne. The Moon is about to occult the bright star Elnath. The inset shows the telescopic view at the time. (click to embiggen).

An occultation of Elnath, (Beta Tauri) occurs in the early morning of Sunday August 9.
This is best seen from the east coast. For Mebourne and Hobart, the Moon occults Elnath when it is very low, so egress may be better for observation.Western Australia sees a close approach. The Moon is past last quarter low in the eastern sky for easy binocular/telescope observation, although telescope is best

Place	Disappears Bright Limb	Reappears Dark Limb
Adelaide ACST	-	4:54
Brisbane  AEST	04:34	5:35
Canberra AEST	04:42	05:27
Darwin ACST	04:00	04:26
Hobart AEST	05:04	05:14
Melbourne AEDST	04:41	05:24
Perth AWST	-	-
Sydney AEST	04:43	05:29

Stars:

The northern sky as seen at 23:00 ACST from Adelaide. The bright stars Altair, Deneb and Vega are seen forming the ‘Winter triangle” in the northern sky.  Similar views will been seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time.	The winter triangle with the constellation names and lines added.

In August the Milky way passes across the Zenith in the early evening, making Scorpius, the scorpion, and Sagittarius the distinct Teapot asterism dominating the sky. Unfortunately that means you will get a crick in the Neck trying to watch them unless lying on the ground

This month we look to the northern skies and the constellation Aquila. The constellation is faint, and the most notable stars are the bright star Altair, flanked by two dimmer, but still bright stars. This grouping is instantly recognisable as there are no other bright stars close by. 
The name Aquila means eagle in Latin and in Greco-Roman mythology Aquila is the bird that carried Zeus’s (Jupiter’s) thunderbolts.

The eagle motif of Aquila also appears in Indigenous astronomy. For the Koori people of Victoria, Altair represented Bunjil the Eaglehawk. The stars to each side of him were his two wives, a pair of black swans. To the Boorong people of western Victoria, Altair was Totyerguil, the son of Neilloan (the mallee fowl, represented by the star Vega), and the stars on either side were his two wives. Totyerguil may also represent an eagle.

While there are no thunderbolts for this celestial eagle, Aquila covers a nice swath of the Milky Way and a dust lane. Unfortunately there are no bright clusters or galaxies to enchant us, but if you sweep the area around Altair with binoculars under dark skies you will be rewarded with faint but delightful star clouds. In dark sky locations there is an “E” shaped dark nebula west of Altair that is easily visible in binoculars. 

Altair is also the vertex of the pattern of stars known as the Winter Triangle in the southern hemisphere (or the Summer Triangle in the northern hemisphere). This is made up of Altair itself, the bright star Vega which is close to the northern horizon and the bright star Deneb, which is even closer to the horizon (and may be difficult to see in southern Australia). This large triangle encloses a large section of the Milky.

The position of the Southern Cross and the pointers makes Omega Centauri, a magnificent globular cluster, easy to find in the evening as it forms the apex of a triangle with the Beta Crucis  and Beta Centauri forming the base.

Meteors: Perseids, August 12.

The famous Perseids are not readily observable from most of Australia. The radiant will be below the horizon for many southern observers. Observers in Darwin and Cape York may see some meteors looking north at around 3-4 am..