August nights are the province of two prominent constellations and an asterism. The constellations are Sagittarius, Scorpius, and the Summer Triangle. The brightest stars of Sagittarius form a teapot, with the Milky Way billowing as “steam” above the spout. Hook-shaped Scorpius really resembles its namesake, the scorpion. The Summer Triangle consists of three stars — Vega, Altair, and Deneb — that form a pattern that’s not a constellation. Such a pattern is known as an asterism.
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In the Sky This Month
August 1: Moon and Planets
A brilliant triangle slides across the south tonight: the Moon and the planets Jupiter and Saturn. Jupiter looks like a brilliant star above the Moon at nightfall. Fainter Saturn stands to the left of the Moon.
August 2: Moon and Saturn
The planet Saturn looks like a bright star to the upper right of the Moon as night falls and leading the Moon across the sky later on. The even brighter planet Jupiter is to the upper right of Saturn.
August 3: Mars at Perihelion
Mars snuggles closest to the Sun today for the year, about 27 million miles closer than at its farthest. The planet looks like a bright orange star. It rises due east near midnight and stands high in the south at first light.
August 4: Scorpius
Scorpius, the scorpion, stands low in the south as night falls. Its “heart” is the bright orange star Antares. A short line of three stars to the upper right of Antares forms the scorpion’s head. Its body, tail, and stinger curl to the lower left of Antares.
August 5: Blowing Off Steam
U Scorpii is a binary star that stages big outbursts every decade or so. The last eruption took place in 2010, so the next one could happen at any time. The system stands above Antares, the scorpion’s bright orange heart, which is in the south as night falls.
August 6: The Arteries
A strong heart needs strong arteries, and Scorpius has both. The scorpion’s heart is the star Antares, an orange supergiant. It’s flanked by bright stars representing the arteries — one to the upper right of Antares at nightfall, the other to the lower left.
August 7: Milky Way
All of the stars visible to our eyes belong to the Milky Way Galaxy. The Milky Way forms a disk that spans 100,000 light-years. We are inside the disk, so we see it as a band of light — the combined glow of millions of stars — ringing the entire sky.
Full Aug. 3, 10:59 am
Last Aug. 11, 11:45 am
New Aug. 18, 9:42 pm
First Aug. 25, 12:58 pm
Times are U.S. Central Time.
Apogee August 9
Perigee Aug 21
The full Moon of August is known as the Grain Moon or Green Corn Moon.