In August, New York City stargazers will be able to see some planets with the naked eye.
The most visible of those planets is Venus, which will be the brightest object in the evening, second only to the moon. Before the end of month, the second-closest planet to the sun will appear just after sunset.
On Aug. 7, Mercury and Venus will appear together in the constellation of Leo. One week later, stargazers can see Jupiter and Mars together in the constellation of Taurus. An easy way to tell the planets apart is that Jupiter is five times brighter than the reddish Mars, which will appear to the right of and just above the gas giant.
“Venus is now back in the evening,” said Bart Fried, spokesperson for the Amateur Astronomers Association. “It’s high enough that you’ll easily notice this really bright planet and it’s the brightest thing in the sky besides the moon.”
Aug. 19 will feature the year’s first supermoon, which will appear 6.4% larger and 12.8% brighter than the average full moon. The supermoon won’t actually be bigger or brighter. Rather, it will be at its closest point – 226,000 miles – in its orbit around the Earth.
On Aug. 21, the moon will appear near Saturn in the constellation Aquarius. Our lunar neighbor will make appearances with other planets throughout the month, including Jupiter on Aug. 27 in the constellation Taurus and with Mars on the next night in the same location.
The Perseids, one of the most spectacular meteor showers of the year, will peak at midnight on Aug. 11, when as many as 75 meteors will streak across the sky at a speed of 37 miles per second. The shooting stars will be visible until the end of the month. The light showers are the result of debris left behind by Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle on its 133-year orbit around the sun.
“It’s really cool,” Fried said. “They can be really bright, and they have really long trains of dust and gas that linger for a while.”
The shooting stars are visible above New York City, but the darker the sky, the better the show. Spots like Great Kills on Staten Island or Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn are ideal locations within the city. The Milky Way, which is in prime viewing this month, may also be visible from these locations.
“Summertime is Milky Way time. It’s just spectacular,” Fried said. “That’s the center of our galaxy, and when you see the Milky Way, you’re looking [from the] edge on into our galaxy.”
The skies about 45 minutes to an hour outside New York City are dark enough for optimal viewing. Robert Moses State Park and Fahnestock State Park are two good locations. In the Garden State, the United Astronomy Clubs of New Jersey will host telescope viewings at Jenny Jump State Park in Warren County, a good dark-sky location.
If you’re in a dark sky location on Aug. 12, the greenish comet 13P/Olbers is coming into view on its 68-year solar orbit. The comet will be visible after sunset in the constellation Coma Berenices, close to the Big Dipper and just above Leo.
“It’ll look like a faint smudge, but it’ll be visible,” Fried said.
During the day, the sun will continue to be very active until its solar maximum next year, with as many as 50 sunspots visible at any moment. Sunspots are cooler areas on the sun’s surface, giving them a darker appearance.
Solar filters are necessary for viewing the sun. Fried also recommended NASA’s free app, The Sun Now, for tracking what’s happening on its surface. It’s updated hourly.
“The sun’s been phenomenally active,” Fried said. “If you’ve got any solar filters for your telescope or their binoculars, there have been just dozens of sunspots all the time, and the sun’s been going crazy.”