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Venus continues being our evening star in the west. It has now reached the western edge of Virgo. Over the past few months, Venus has been moving up away from the sun as it went from the far part of its orbit to much closer to us and getting brighter in the process. In a telescope that has shrunk as less of the dayside of Venus faces us. Even though the amount of Venus’ dayside facing us is smaller, Venus is brighter because it is closer to us more than compensating for the thinner phase.

Venus will be at greatest eastern elongation (greatest angular separation to the east of the sun) on August 14. At that time, Venus will appear to be at a quarter phase, half lit up. Actually, since our orbit and Venus’ orbit are not perfect circles, just slightly elliptical, Venus will be at perfect half-lit-up quarter phase two nights earlier, August 12.

That night is also the peak of the . Comet Swift-Tuttle has as it moves around the sun. Comet Swift-Tuttle has an orbital period of 133 years and last reached , swinging closest by the sun, in 1992. The next time the comet comes into the inner solar system will be the year 2126 and it will be bright enough to see without binoculars.

The dust trail is a bit spread out, so Earth has been moving through the dust trail since about July 17 and will leave the dust trail around August 24. Perseid meteors are visible during that entire time but the densest part of the dust trail is at the peak on the night of August 11/12 and 12/13. August 12 also happens to be a , so we’re going to have an unobstructed view of the Perseids this year! The Perseids always put on a good show as the dust bits hit the top of our atmosphere at 39 miles/second, burning up harmlessly many tens of miles above the ground. 

The radiant of the Perseids (from where the meteors appear to streak) is at the top end of Perseus, rising in the northeast shortly after sunset. The best time to view the Perseids is to face directly into the comet’s dust stream. 

This month’s new moon on August 12 is going to be perfectly lined up with the sun to cover up the sun for a . Unfortunately, we are too far south to see it. We won’t even see it partially covered. For us the gap between the moon and sun will be a little more than one moon radius at closest approach at about 9:25 a.m.. . 

Tonight the moon is in a becoming visible at about 10 p.m. next to the dim stars of Pisces. It will be at third (last) quarter phase in Aries the night of August 4/5. Below the midpoint of Pisces is Saturn becoming visible at about 11:30 p.m.. Saturn is brighter than any of the stars in the constellations around it. Mars is in between the two horns of Taurus, becoming visible at about 3 a.m.. Mars is about than orange-red at the eye of Taurus. Mercury will be at greatest western elongation tomorrow morning visible low in the east shortly before sunrise. Mercury will be to the right of the star in Gemini.  Jupiter is too close to the sun to be visible. Jupiter was at conjunction with the sun on July 29.

NASA’s next large space telescope, the , is ready to launch at the end of the month on August 30, ahead of the original schedule. It has a mirror the but the telescope will have a field of view at least 100 times larger than Hubble’s. However, Roman’s observations will be concentrated in the near-infrared wavelengths with in the near infrared up to 2.3 microns for the . There is on the near-infrared end but Roman has a much larger field of view than Webb and Webb can see into the mid-infrared. Webb has a narrower but higher resolution view than Roman, enabling it to see the very first stars and galaxies that formed. Roman’s will enable it to find objects that would have been missed by Hubble’s and Webb’s narrow views. Roman’s wide field of view will help us figure out the role of black holes, , and in forming and shaping galaxies, galaxy clusters, and superclusters.

will observe in the visible band looking for exoplanets by blocking the light of the host star. Roman will also be able to find using the and techniques. 

As temperatures rise, please check out for where are the cooling centers in Kern County. They open up when the temperatures are expected to get 105 degrees or hotter.

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Director of the William M Thomas Planetarium at ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´

Author of the award-winning website