{"id":2871,"date":"2021-08-02T06:44:33","date_gmt":"2021-08-02T06:44:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/?p=2871"},"modified":"2021-08-02T06:44:33","modified_gmt":"2021-08-02T06:44:33","slug":"griffith-observatory-sky-report-through-august-31-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/2021\/08\/02\/griffith-observatory-sky-report-through-august-31-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Griffith Observatory Sky Report through August 31, 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Click<\/strong><\/a>LISTEN to this week\u2019s Sky Report<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Aug2021_SR.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n\n\n

This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the period between August 1and August 31, 2021. Here are the events happening in the sky of southern California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mercury passes behind the sun and then appears in the evening sky in the last week of August. By August 31, the sun sets at 7:20 p.m., PDT, and Mercury sets at 8:16 p.m., PDT. Never observe Mercury when the sun is in the sky, for the risk of damage to the eyes is great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venus is in the evening sky. On the 1st<\/sup>, the sun sets at 7:54 p.m., PDT, and Venus sets at 9:34 p.m., PDT. On the 31st<\/sup>, Venus sets at 9:02 p.m., PDT. Venus presents a small disk in a gibbous phase when viewed through a telescope. The planet slowly increases in size from 13 arcseconds to 15 arcseconds, while at the same time the gibbous phase slowly gets thinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Copper-red Mars continues to recede from earth and shrinks slowly. Mars is fading into the sunset. It is visible with difficulty early in the month. The planet is at magnitude +1.8 and low in the west.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mars is only a small disk, and so no surface features will be visible, even with a telescope. On the 1st<\/sup>, Mars sets at 8:59 p.m., PDT. On the 31st<\/sup>, Mars sets at 7:52 p.m., PDT, 32 minutes after the sun sets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jupiter rises in the east at 8:52 p.m., PDT, on the 1st<\/sup> and at 6:42 p.m., PDT, on the 31st<\/sup>, so by the end of the month it will be visible in the evening sky as the sun sets. A telescope will reveal features on the disk and the four Galilean moons, which travel in a rough line east to west around Jupiter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturn rises in the east at 7:52 p.m., PDT, on the 1st<\/sup> and at 5:46 p.m., PDT, on the 31st<\/sup>. The planet is well placed for observations in the evening sky. A telescope will reveal Saturn\u2019s disk, its rings, and perhaps its brightest and largest moon, Titan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New moon occurs on the 8th<\/sup>, first quarter on the 15th<\/sup>, full moon on the 22nd<\/sup>, and last quarter on the 30th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Perseid meteor shower peaks from the evening of the 11th<\/sup> through the morning of the 12th<\/sup>. The meteors appear to come from the constellation of Perseus and so are named after it. Some 50 to 75 meteors per hour may be visible from rural areas. The Perseids are usually faint, with an occasional bright meteor. The moon is 3.5 days past new moon and 13-percent illuminated, and so it will not interfere with observations.  The constellation of Perseus rises around 11:00 p.m., PDT, in the northeast, and will not be overhead until sunrise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow <\/a>All Space Considered<\/a> and Griffith Observatory<\/a> on Twitter for updates on astronomy and space-related events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LISTEN to this week\u2019s Sky Report https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Aug2021_SR.mp3 This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the period between August 1and August 31, 2021. Here are the events happening in the sky of southern California. Mercury passes behind the sun and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-skyreport"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2871"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2873,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2871\/revisions\/2873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}