{"id":2990,"date":"2023-08-02T01:13:14","date_gmt":"2023-08-02T01:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/?p=2990"},"modified":"2023-08-02T01:13:14","modified_gmt":"2023-08-02T01:13:14","slug":"griffith-observatory-sky-report-through-august-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/2023\/08\/02\/griffith-observatory-sky-report-through-august-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Griffith Observatory Sky Report through August, 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Click<\/strong><\/a>LISTEN to this week\u2019s Sky Report<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/AUG_2023_Sky_Report.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the period between August 1 and August 31, 2023. Here are the events happening in the sky of southern California.<\/p>\n

Mercury<\/strong> sets in the west at 9:09 p.m., PDT, one hour and 15 minutes after sunset on the 1st<\/sup>. The sun sets at 7:54 p.m., PDT. The planet\u2019s disk is 62-percent illuminated and 6.6 arcseconds wide, and so most telescopes cannot reveal its disk. On the 9th<\/sup>, Mercury is at greatest eastern elongation. The planet sets earlier each night after that. On the 31st<\/sup>, the sun sets at 7:20 p.m., PDT, and Mercury sets at 7:28 p.m., PDT. The planet is unobservable. Do not observe any planet when it comes close to the sun, for the danger to the eyes is great.<\/p>\n

Venus<\/strong> sets in the west at 8:21 p.m., PDT, on the 1st<\/sup>, 27 minutes after sunset, and so is unobservable. On the 31st<\/sup>, Venus rises in the morning sky in the east at 4:37 a.m., PDT, and the sun rises at 6:26 a.m., PDT, one hour and 49 minutes later. Venus is ten-percent illuminated and 51 arcseconds wide.<\/p>\n

Mars<\/strong> moves from Leo the Lion to Virgo the Maiden on August 17. On the 1st<\/sup>, Mars sets in the west at 9:36 p.m., PDT, is 97-percent illuminated and 43.9 arcseconds wide, and is too small for most telescopes to reveal. On the 31st<\/sup>, Mars sets at 8:26 p.m., PDT, an hour and six minutes after sunset. The disk of Mars will remain too small to be seen until a few months before January, 2025, the time of the planet\u2019s next opposition.<\/p>\n

Jupiter<\/strong> is in Aries the Ram. On the 1st<\/sup>, Jupiter rises in the east-northeast at 12:17 a.m., PDT. On the 31st<\/sup>, Jupiter rises at 10:22 p.m., PDT, and the planet then is 45 arcseconds wide. A magnification of 50x will show the Red Spot, and the four bright Galilean moons may be seen moving back and forth, roughly in a line centered on Jupiter.<\/p>\n

Saturn<\/strong> is in Aquarius the Water Bearer. On the 1st<\/sup>, the planet rises in the east-southeast at 9:11 p.m., PDT, and it rises at 7:08 p.m., PDT, on the 31st<\/sup>. Saturn is 40 arcseconds wide. A magnification of 50x is needed to see the rings and Saturn\u2019s largest moon Titan.<\/p>\n

Uranus<\/strong> is in Aries the Ram. On the 1st<\/sup>, Uranus rises in the east-northeast at 12:42 a.m., PDT, and at 10:42 p.m., PDT, on the 31st<\/sup>.\u00a0 On the 15th<\/sup>, Uranus is at Right Ascension 3h<\/sup> 22m<\/sup> 43s<\/sup> and declination +18\u00b0 12\u02b9 53\u02ba. A magnification of 150x is needed to see its 3.5-arcsecond-wide disk.<\/p>\n

Neptune<\/strong> is in Pisces the Fishes. On the 1st<\/sup>, the planet rises in the east at 10:07 p.m., PDT. On the 31st<\/sup>, Neptune rises at 8:07 p.m., PDT. On the 15th<\/sup>, Neptune is at Right Ascension 23h<\/sup> 51m<\/sup> 38s<\/sup> and declination -2\u00b0 16\u02b9 59\u02ba.\u00a0 A magnification of 150x is needed to see its 2.3-arcsecond-wide disk.<\/p>\n

Full moon occurs on the 1st<\/sup>, last quarter on the 8th<\/sup>, new moon on the 16th<\/sup>, first quarter on the 24th<\/sup>, and full moon again on the 30th<\/sup>. When two full moons occur in the same month, the second full moon is called a \u201cblue moon.\u201d The moon does not, however, change color. This second full moon also occurs when the moon is at perigee, the closest point in its orbit to the earth. The event is called a supermoon because the moon is said to be brighter and larger than usual, even though the difference is not discernable to the eye. The second August full moon is a \u201cblue supermoon.\u201d<\/p>\n

SPECIAL EVENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Perseids<\/strong> meteors<\/strong> are active from July 14 to September 1. They peak from the night of August 12 through the morning of the 13th<\/sup>. The waning crescent moon is only ten-percent full and will not interfere with observation. Normal rates as seen from rural locations, range from 50 to 75 shower members per hour at maximum. The Perseids are particles released from comet 109P\/Swift-Tuttle. They are called Perseids because the radiant, the area of the sky from which the meteors seem to originate, is located near the prominent constellation of Perseus the Hero.<\/p>\n

Follow All Space Considered and Griffith Observatory on Facebook<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, YouTube<\/a>, and Twitter<\/a> 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\/2023\/08\/AUG_2023_Sky_Report.mp3 This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the period between August 1 and August 31, 2023. Here are the events happening in the sky of southern California. Mercury sets in the west … 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-2990","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\/2990","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=2990"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2992,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2990\/revisions\/2992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}