Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Space
  3. News

NASA reveals the best night-sky treats viewable in August

Trevor Mogg
By

NASA is back again with its monthly rundown of skywatching treats.

Taking center stage in August is the Perseid meteor shower, an annual event that’s set to peak in the middle of this month.

What's Up: August 2021 Skywatching Tips from NASA

The shower features so-called “shooting stars” that streak brightly across the night sky, created in this case by tiny fragments from the debris stream of Comet Swift-Tuttle burning up in Earth’s atmosphere.

Recommended Videos

“Although Perseids can be seen from mid-July through late August, the most likely time to see any is a couple of days on either side of the peak,” NASA explains. “This year the peak falls on the night of [Wednesday] August 11th, and into the pre-dawn hours of August 12th.” The space agency describes this period as “prime time for the Perseids,” adding that under suitably dark skies you may be able to spot as many as one meteor per minute.

Related

NASA’s video at the top of this page offers several tips on how best to catch the Perseid meteor shower. You can also check out this Digital Trends article offering more detailed suggestions on how best to view it.

It’s worth adding that if for whatever reason you can’t get out to view the meteors, or you’re stuck in a location with extreme light pollution that prevents a decent view of the night sky, then you could do the next best thing and visit NASA’s livestream (more details here) of the Perseids overnight on Wednesday, August 11.

August is also a good month for spotting Jupiter and Saturn — and despite their vast distance from Earth, you’ll be able to spot both, or at least the sunlight that they reflect, with the naked eye.

Jupiter and Saturn in the night sky.
NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA says August is “perhaps the best time this year to enjoy viewing Jupiter and Saturn, as both planets reach opposition this month,” the term used for when a planet is on the same side of the solar system as Earth.

You’ll be able to spot Jupiter and Saturn from sunset to sunrise, with the planets reaching their highest point in the sky around midnight. Jupiter is easier to spot because it’s brighter. Once you’ve located it, you should be able to see Saturn a short distance away. To make it easy, fire up one of these astronomy apps, some of which use augmented reality to show you precisely what you’re looking at in the night sky.

Before you peer up to identify Jupiter, why not check out this recently released flyby video of the planet and one of its moons, captured by NASA’s Juno satellite.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
NASA to reveal Artemis II crew for historic lunar trip
The moon and Earth as seen from the Orion spacecraft in November 2022.

NASA will soon reveal the four lucky astronauts that will be sent on a flyby of the moon in the Artemis II mission.

The four crewmembers -- three from NASA and one from the Canadian Space Agency -- will be named on Monday, April 3, NASA chief Bill Nelson announced in a tweet on Thursday.

Read more
Venus, Jupiter, and Ceres feature in NASA’s skywatching tips for March
how to photograph perseid meteor shower night sky with

NASA has just shared its monthly skywatching tips for March, helping us to better understand exactly what we’re looking at when we gaze upward toward a sea of celestial bodies -- provided it isn’t cloudy, that is.
Venus and Jupiter
At the start of this month, Venus and Jupiter appear close together in the night sky, and you can spot both with the naked eye. But as the days go by, the distance between the two planets will open up, with Venus climbing higher and Jupiter gradually heading in the opposite direction.

Jupiter will drop to such an extent that it’ll vanish from sight in the coming weeks. But in May it will return -- in the pre-dawn sky -- along with Saturn.
Moon and Venus
In its monthly update, NASA notes that on March 23 and 24, during the first couple of hours after sunset, the moon will be visible as a slim crescent close to Venus. On March 23 it appears just below the moon, while the very next night it’ll be just above. The following night, on March 25, the moon will its upward trajectory as viewed from Earth, appearing beside the brilliant Pleiades star cluster that evening.
Ceres
With this month seeing crop planting and harvesting activities in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, respectively, NASA suggests the coming weeks as “a fitting time to try and spot the planet named for a mythical goddess of agriculture, grains, and fertile lands. (In addition to being the origin of the word ‘cereal.’)”

Read more
Check out NASA’s skywatching tips for February
Open star clusters many light years from Earth.

February is just about upon us and so it's time for NASA to once again share its suggestions on what to look out for in the skies in the coming weeks.
Celestial pairings
First up, Jupiter and Venus will appear to converge in the night sky during the coming weeks. They’re easy to spot thanks to their bright appearance, but if you have trouble identifying them, just use one of the many excellent astronomy apps available for Android and iPhone.

Another pairing occurs toward the end of the month when the moon and Mars appear to come very close, high in the southwest after sunset.
Constellation Auriga
NASA says February is a great month to pick out the constellation Auriga.

Read more