{"id":3049,"date":"2024-08-01T08:11:15","date_gmt":"2024-08-01T08:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/?p=3049"},"modified":"2024-08-01T08:11:15","modified_gmt":"2024-08-01T08:11:15","slug":"griffith-observatory-sky-report-through-august-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/2024\/08\/01\/griffith-observatory-sky-report-through-august-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Griffith Observatory Sky Report through August, 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Click<\/strong><\/a>LISTEN to this week\u2019s Sky Report<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/AUG_2024_Sky_Report.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the period between August 1 and August 31, 2024. Here are the events happening in the sky of southern California.<\/p>\n

Mercury<\/strong> begins August close to the sun and cannot be observed. On the 31st<\/sup>, Mercury rises in the east-northeast at 5:09 a.m., PDT, and the sun rises at 6:26 a.m., PDT. The planet\u2019s disk is 24-percent illuminated and 8.5 arcseconds wide, and so most telescopes cannot reveal its disk. 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-northwest at 8:47 p.m., PDT, on the 1st<\/sup>, and the sun sets at 7:54 p.m., PDT. On the 31st<\/sup>, Venus sets due west at 8:25 p.m., PDT. Venus is 91-percent illuminated and 11 arcseconds wide.<\/p>\n

Mars<\/strong> is in Taurus the Bull. On the 1st<\/sup>, Mars rises in the east-northeast at 1:33 a.m., PDT. On the 31st<\/sup>, Mars rises at 12:51 a.m., PDT. The planet is 88-percent illuminated and six arcseconds wide, and so a magnification of 150x is needed.<\/p>\n

Jupiter<\/strong> is in Taurus the Bull. On the 1st<\/sup>, Jupiter rises in the east-northeast at 1:59 a.m., PDT. On the 31st<\/sup>, Jupiter rises at 12:18 a.m., PDT. The planet is 38 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 at 9:44 p.m., PDT. On the 31st<\/sup>, the planet rises at 7:42 p.m., PDT. Saturn is 19 arcseconds wide. A magnification of 50x is needed to see the rings and Saturn\u2019s largest moon Titan.<\/p>\n

Uranus<\/strong> is in Taurus the Bull. On the 1st<\/sup>, Uranus rises in the east at 12:53 a.m., PDT. On the 31st<\/sup>, the planet rises at 10:52 p.m., PDT.\u00a0 On the 15th<\/sup>, Uranus is at Right Ascension 3h<\/sup> 39m<\/sup> 37s<\/sup> and declination +19\u00b0 15\u02b9 35\u02ba. A magnification of 150x is needed to see its 3.6-arcsecond-wide disk.<\/p>\n

Neptune<\/strong> is in Pisces the Fishes. On the 1st<\/sup>, the planet rises in the east at 10:10 p.m., PDT. On the 31st<\/sup>, Neptune rises at 8:11 p.m., PDT. On the 15th<\/sup>, Neptune is at Right Ascension 0h<\/sup> 0m<\/sup> 4s<\/sup> and declination -1\u00b0 25\u02b9 21\u02ba.\u00a0 A magnification of 150x is needed to see its 2.3-arcsecond-wide disk.<\/p>\n

New moon occurs on the 4th<\/sup>, first quarter on the 12th<\/sup>, full moon on the 19th<\/sup>, and last quarter on the 26th<\/sup>.<\/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 11 through the morning of the 12th<\/sup>. The moon is 44-percent full and will 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

Lunar-X<\/strong>.is visible on the 11th<\/sup>.\u00a0 It is visible only for a few hours starting at 6:30 p.m., PDT. Lunar-X is a feature on the first quarter moon just within the dark half of the moon and midway between the center point and the southern edge.\u00a0 It is due to the rims of two craters illuminated by the sun.\u00a0 A telescope with a magnification of 50x or more is needed to see it.<\/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\/2024\/07\/AUG_2024_Sky_Report.mp3 This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the period between August 1 and August 31, 2024. Here are the events happening in the sky of southern California. Mercury begins August close to … 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-3049","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\/3049","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=3049"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3051,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3049\/revisions\/3051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}