Perseid Meteors
The Perseid meteor shower should be at its best the next couple of nights. There won’t be much to see, though, because the gibbous Moon will be in view most of the night. Its glow will overpower all but the brightest meteors.
Arcturus
The brightest star of summer nights is diving toward the western horizon. Arcturus, the leading light of Bootes, the herdsman, is about a third of the way up the western sky at nightfall. It is dropping lower each night.
Scooping Dipper
The Big Dipper plunges toward the northern horizon on August evenings. It is in the northwest as darkness falls, with its scoop below the handle, as though it’s preparing to dip into a celestial well.
Aquarius
The Moon is crossing Aquarius tonight. Although it is well known, the constellation is rather faint, so it’s tough to see its stars through the bright moonlight. Aquarius will climb to prominence in early autumn.
Morning View
The dawn sky is offering the same stars that will decorate the evening sky of winter, which are some of the brightest and most beautiful stars and constellations of them all. It also offers a bonus: Venus, the brilliant “morning star.”
The Dog Days
The Dog Star is just beginning to emerge from the Sun’s glare in the dawn sky. According to tradition, that means we’re just getting into the Dog Days of summer. Sirius is quite low in the east-southeast shortly before sunrise.
Star of Interest
Mu Andromeda, one of the targets in a search for extraterrestrial intelligence, is in view in the northeast by 11 p.m., above Mirach, Andromeda’s second-brightest star. The search has found odd radio signals from the star, although they’re not thought to be messages from ET.
Standing Tall
Hercules, the strong man, stands directly overhead as darkness falls tonight. It’s marked by a lopsided square of stars known as the Keystone. Despite the constellation’s fame, though, the stars of Hercules aren’t all that bright.
More Moon and Saturn
The Moon stands above the spout of the celestial teapot tonight. The teapot is formed by the brightest stars of the constellation Sagittarius. The planet Saturn stands to the right of the Moon, and looks like a bright star.
Moon and Saturn
The ringed planet Saturn stands quite close to the Moon tonight. The planet looks like a bright star just to the lower left of the Moon at nightfall.