It is missing a little to the summer month par excellence, Augustso let’s see what are the celestial events who will keep us company in this month vacationer. The most relevant is certainly it Perseid meteor sciamethe “shooting stars” of the night of San Lorenzo, who will have the peak around 11/12 August with well 100 meteors sightable at the time in the direction of the constellation of Perseus to the east. On the night of the Perside peak on August 12 there will also be the “Celeste kiss” between Jupiter and Venuswhich will be held all night all night starting from their raised at 03:20. The planets are great protagonists this month with theplanetary alignment of the 6 planets Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, Venus and Mercury starting from August 10 for the whole monthfrom 5 in the morning (although Saturn is already visible from 10 pm). The month concludes the moon who will make himself the protagonist of a series of conjunctions with the planets and the Pleiadessome of which unfortunately not visible from Italy in the moment of maximum approach.
The Perseid meteor scar unit is coming
The main event of the month of August will undoubtedly be the Perseid meteor sciamethe famous “shooting stars” of the night of San Lorenzo. Although this celestial event is celebrated in conjunction with 10 August, the night of San Lorenzo, in reality the peak of the swarm meteoric takes place between 11 and 12 August, When they can be stocks up to 100 meteors per hour coming from East in the direction of the Perseus constellation (hence the name Persaid).
Unfortunately this year The moon will partially ruin the meteoric swarm since the Perseids will reach the peak shortly after The phase of Full moonwhose brightness will tend to increase that of the night sky, negatively influencing the observability of the event. The dial from which the Perseids come will rise around 9/21: 30 in the east/north-east direction, but we will have to wait at least midnight to have it high enough in the sky to be guaranteed a large number of sighting of Perseids.
The “tears of San Lorenzo” are not stars, but small meteors, remains of the Comet Swift-Tuttlewhich burn in the terrestrial atmosphere giving rise to the characteristic light trail. It is one of the most copious swarms of the year, together with the Quadrantids, Geminids and Orionides. We invite you to consult this article for advice on how to photograph the meteor rain.
Planetary alignment starting from 10 August
Starting from 5:15 on 10 Augustfor the most mornings among you, it will be possible to observe the splendid planetary alignment of the 6 planets Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, Venus and Mercury. The 6 celestial bodies will not be used on a straight line, as the term alignment could make you think, but they will be All visible simultaneously in heaven. The next time this event will happen will be a late February 2026. The event will not be visible Only on 10 August, but throughout the monthso there will be several occasions during the summer holidays that they can admire the celestial show.
THE first two planets to rise will be Saturn and Neptune around 10:15 pm of the previous evening. The month of August has an excellent visibility window for Saturn (the only one of the two visible to the naked eye) which will progressively arise more and sooner over the month, coming to appear over the horizon around 9:00 pm at the end of August. The Planet following arise will instead be Uranusaround midnight and a half on 10 August. Unfortunately, as in the case of Neptune, this planet is not visible to the naked eye, but at least requires binoculars to be seen. THE Next two objects To appear above the horizon, after only 10 minutes from each other, will be Venus and Jupiter, Around 03:30. Thursday will progressively arise before during the month, 02:30 in late August, while Venus will have an opposite behavior, rising around 04:00 at the end of the month.
THE’Last planet to risethus completing the planetary parade in the night sky is Mercury. Given its proximity to the sun, Mercury does not reach great angular distances from our star for which it is visible shortly before dawn or shortly after sunset, when the sky is already partially illuminated by sunlight. On 10 August, Mercury will rise at 5:15 in the morning in the east/north-east direction. The sun will only rise an hour later, so the visibility window of the planetary parade in which Mercury is high enough on the horizon is very short, in any case requiring an east horizon that must be as clear as possible.
Mercury will reach the Maximum western elongation from the sun on August 19th (18 ° 36 ′), thus marking the maximum moment of temporal distance between its rising and that of the sun. This is the best time of the month to observe the planetary alignment (and mercury itself), since Mercury will rise at 04:50, thus giving more than an hour to admire the celestial show.
The celestial “kiss” between Venus and Jupiter
The night of the Pecco delle Perseids will be another splendid celestial event to keep us company. We are talking about the conjunction Between The two planets Venus and Jupiter. These two brilliant celestial objects, Venus with magnitude -4 and Jupiter -1.9 will be engaged in a Long Celeste “Kiss” Starting from their raised onEast/North-East horizon at 03:20. During the night, Venus and Jupiter will be separated by half a degree Angular distance, appearing with the naked eye almost like a single brilliant object in the constellation of the twins, not far from the stars Castore and Pollux. Using binoculars or a telescope with a quite large field of view, the show will expand further, particularly with a good telescope that would allow you to observe, as long as you have a sky quite without light pollution, both the bands in the atmosphere of Jupiter and the phases of Venus.
Conjunctions between moon and planets
During the month the moon will make the protagonist of several “close encounters” with the planets of the Solar System, only some of which will take place when in Italy it will be night. It starts the August 12thwhen the Moonilluminated at 88%, will be found to Just less than 4 ° angular distance from Saturn and just under 3 ° from Nettuno. This close approach will take place between 14:34 and 15:36, therefore resulting not visible from Italy. Nonetheless, when the three stars arise around 10 pm, they will still have a relatively small angular distance, around 6th, thus giving a fair show.
The August 16th We will have a similar situation in the conjunction between the Moonilluminated at 46%, el ‘Stellar Pleiadi pile. The two objects will reach a half -degree angular distance, but at 18:09 Italians, so you will have to wait for midnight to be able to see them relatively close to heaven, between 3rd and 4th. Same destiny for the close encounter between a thin sickle of Luna and Jupiter on August 19thwhich will reach the maximum approach of 4 ° 43 ′ at 23:05, however rising on the horizon only at 3 in the morning, when now separated by about 5 °.
The last three conjunctions of the month involve the moon and the rocky planets Mercury, Venus and Mars. The August 20 there Moonilluminated at 9%, will reach the slightest angular distance from Venus of 4 ° 45 ′ at 14:27, while the August 21st the slightest distance with Mercury of 3 ° 28 ‘will be reached at 20:13. The August 26thon the other hand, the moon illuminated at 11% will reach the slightest corner distance of 2 ° 28 ‘from Mars at 16:26. None of these three events will therefore be visible from Italy at the time of maximum approach.
The lunar phases of the month of August
We conclude the roundup of celestial events of the month by reporting dates and timetables of the moon phases. Our natural satellite will reach the phase of Full moon on August 9thprecisely at 09:55when it will be directly opposite to the sun compared to the earth.
Although this event technically lasts only one instant, the moon still appears as a flood from the ground at least a day before and one after. The full moon of the month is called Luna della Storionethe name of the American native tradition that derives from the copious fishing of sturgeons made in this month. There Moon instead it will be New on August 23 at 08:06.
