Sky This Week for August 5 to August 7, 2016
By Richard Talcott
Friday, August 5
A slightly fatter crescent Moon stands 1° below Jupiter in this evening’s sky. Look for the soft glow of earthshine — sunlight that has reflected off our planet to the Moon and then back to our eyes — on the 90 percent of Luna that the Sun is not illuminating directly. Jupiter shines brilliantly at magnitude –1.7 and remains a beacon in the western sky after sunset all week. When viewed through a telescope, the giant planet shows a disk that measures 32″ across and features two dark equatorial cloud belts.
Saturday, August 6
The variable star Algol in Perseus reaches minimum brightness at 5:33 a.m. EDT. If you start watching it late yesterday evening (it rises in the northeast around 10 p.m. local daylight time), you can see its brightness diminish by 70 percent over the course of about five hours as its magnitude drops from 2.1 to 3.4. This eclipsing binary star runs through a cycle from minimum to maximum and back every 2.87 days.
Sunday, August 7
Although Saturn reached its peak about two months ago, it remains a lovely sight. You can find the planet nearly due south around 9 p.m. local daylight time. Saturn shines at magnitude 0.4 and appears far brighter than any of the surrounding stars in southwestern Ophiuchus. When viewed through a telescope, the planet measures 17″ across while its dramatic ring system spans 39″ and tilts 26° to our line of sight.
Reference:
Witches Of The Craft® 