ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS FOR Auguste 2009
August 2: Mercury and Regulus are just 50’ apart. Very low in west at 8:15pm.
August 3: See bright Venus some 2.5 degrees E of rich open cluster M35 in Gemini.
August 3-4: 6th magnitude star 45 Capricorni will be impermanent satellite of Jupiter.
August 5: Venus makes triangle with Mu and Eta Geminorum.
August 6: Full Moon.
August 6: Penumbral Lunar Eclipse. Starts at 4:40am for most of the parts of Western India.
August 6: Mars is roughly 1 degree E-SE of bright open cluster NGC 1746 in Taurus.
August 6: Moon and Jupiter are 2.5 degrees apart at 10pm.
August 14: Jupiter at opposition.
August 14: Last Quarter Moon.
August 15: The Moon is about 7 degree E-NE of Pleiades.
August 16: A Waning Crescent Moon is just 4 degrees NW of Mars before dawn.
August 17: Saturn and Mercury are just 3 degrees apart. Very low in west at dusk.
August 18: A Waning Crescent Moon is only 3 degrees from Venus in east at dawn.
August 18: Neptune at opposition. Find it about 3.5 degrees E-NE from Jupiter. Trough
telescopes at high magnification, Neptune will appear paired with 8th magnitude star. They will be just 0.01’ apart!
August 20: New Moon.
August 22: A very thin Waxing Crescent Moon poses 4 degrees SW of Mercury and 10 degrees S-SW of Saturn. Very low in west just after sunset.
August 24: Mercury at Greatest Eastern Elongation.
August 24: A Waxing Crescent Moon (4.6 days old) is at 5 degrees SE of Spica.
August 26: Venus stands in almost straight with Castor and Pollux in Gemini.
August 27: First Quarter Moon.
August 27: The Moon is at 4 degrees West of Antares.
August 29: Mars will pass within 1 degree SE from open cluster M35.
August 31: Venus is about 2.5 degrees W-SW from M44. Venus will be 1 degree 16’ from M44 on September 2 at 5am.
- Scientist Fenil Patadiya
