Thursday August 8 to Thursday August 15

The First Quarter Moon is Tuesday, August 13. The Moon is close to the bright star Spica in the 10th. Mercury is rapidly fading in the evening twilight, below Venus, as Venus climbs higher in the evening twilight. Saturn enters the evening sky around 8:00 pm, and is now a decent telescopic object in the late evening. Mars comes closer to Jupiter over the week and the pair are spectacularly close on the 15th.

The First Quarter Moon is Tuesday, August 13. the Moon is at apogee, when it is furthest from the Earth, on the 9th.

Western evening sky on Saturday, August 10 as seen from Adelaide at 18:37ACST (60 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen).   

Mercury is fading and is low at Nautical twilight an hour after sunset. This is the last week it will be visible as it disappears into the twilight. Venus is readily visible now and climbing higher in the twilight. The waxing Moon is close to the bright star Spica. 

 

 

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes after sunset). 

 

The eastern sky at 22:00 ACST Saturday, August 10 with Saturn now reasonably high above the horizon for viewing.

 

The inset shows the telescopic view at the time. (click to embiggen).

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time.

Morning sky on Thursday, August 15 as seen from Adelaide at 06:00 ACST (60 minutes before sunrise), Mars and Jupiter are spectacularly close below the red star Aldebaran. 

 

The inset is the low power telescope view of the pair at this time.

 

 

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at roughly the equivalent local time (60 minutes before sunrise).

 

Whole sky on Saturday, August 10 as seen from Adelaide at 19:07 ACST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen).

Scorpius is nearly at the zenith with the heart of the milky way below it. The Southern Cross is still prominent in the Southern sky. Between the bright star Canopus and the Southern Cross are a wealth of binocular objects to discover. The fainter clusters will now fade as the Moon starts to wax.

 

 

   

 Elsewhere in Australia will see a similar view at the equivalent time (90 minutes after sunset).

 

 

Mercury rapidly dims in the evening twilight, and will soon be lost to view.

Venus climbs higher in the evening twilight and is readily visible in the early evening twilight.

Mars is rising in the morning sky this week it comes closer to Jupiter and is spectacularly close on the 15th.

Jupiter is rising in the the morning twilight sky. Jupiter is below the red star Aldebaran and is spectacularly close to Mars on the 15th.

Saturn climbs higher in the late evening sky.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEST, Western sky at 10 pm AEST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.


 

Star Map via Virtual sky. Use your mouse to scroll around and press 8 when your pointer is in the map to set to the current time.

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Here is the near-real time satellite view of the clouds (day and night) http://satview.bom.gov.au/