We’re still undergoing a very hot season, but please travel outside when the evening temperatures cool down a bit and enjoy the beauty of the night.
 

Although Venus is still very prominent in the west in the evening sky, it is setting during twilight, just a little after 10:00 P.M.  Although not what’s normally considered an evening time for many of us, our beautiful ringed planet Saturn, because it rises before midnight, is now considered an evening planet.  Now in the constellation Pisces, the Fishes, it can be easily found by locating the “Great Square,” the body of Pegasus, the Flying Horse, and looking downward.  Saturn will be the brightest object in that region.

In the morning, look for our smallest planet Mercury, this week rising about 90 minutes before the Sun.  It will be at its greatest elongation, just under 20 degrees from it, on August 2nd.

Our red planet, Mars, rises just after 2:00 A.M. this week, and is just 1.5 degrees north of the supernova remnant M1, the Crab Nebula.  With a good pair of binoculars or small telescope, you should be able to pick up both of them in the same field of view.  Let us know if you do.

Although it was such a beacon in the evening sky for such a long time, Jupiter is in conjunction - on the opposite side of us from the Sun - on the 29th, but it will become a morning planet later in August.  

The Full Buck Moon happens on the 28th.  By chance, I happened to see one of these magnificent animals the other evening in my neighborhood, giving me a greater understanding why our ancestors named this full phase after such a beautiful creature.  You can use the waning gibbous Moon to find Neptune on the 2nd, as it will be just 3 degrees north-northwest of our furthest planet, then on the 3rd, it will be 5 ½ degrees north of beautiful Saturn.

Although we’re not at the “peak” time yet, if you keep looking up, you may be able to find several early Perseid meteors.  The major part of the shower is still a few days away, but you may find yourself being fortunate to be introduced to it a bit earlier this week.

And, please keep looking up in hopes of watching the star T in Corona Borealis brighten to that of our North Star, Polaris.  Remember: when it will do so, it will only be able to be seen for several days, so try not to miss it.
 

As we’re in the middle of what some consider the buggiest time of year, it just seems right to introduce NGC 6302, often called the Butterfly Nebula, or the Bug Nebula.  This is a planetary nebula within Scorpius, the Scorpion, sort of between his curved body and his stinger.  As the term planetary nebula normally refers to a large region of dust and gas, mostly kind of roundish (hence their name - the first ones were actually thought to be planets), this nebula is considered bipolar, having two large regions apparently coming from one central part, which houses what is considered one of the hottest stars known, with a surface temperature thousands of degrees.  The original star that created this beauty had to have been very large.  Although this nebula isn’t a naked eye object, it just might be seen with a small telescope or even good binoculars.

For the longest time, discovering moons around other planets had to be done here on Earth.   In fact, just this week, on July 30, 1938, the 11th moon around Jupiter, now named Carme, was discovered by Seth Barnes Nicholson at Mount Wilson Observatory.  However, also this week, on August 2nd, 1989, the incredible craft Voyager 2, while passing by our farthest plane Neptune, discovered not one, but three new moons around it.  This brought the total at that time to 6, including one discovered by Voyager 2 the previous month.  Now, with better ground-based instruments, we are able to discover even more satellites around our planets, but the use of the Voyager 2 to locate moons gave us a great addition to our neighborhood.

We’re always hearing of our known space and rocket companies flying above our main (breathable) atmosphere, but doing so took a fair amount of time.  In fact, it wasn’t until 1948 that the U.S. Navy had modified the V-2 to fly more than 100 miles high.  It was launched on July 30,1946 from White Sands, New Mexico.  Although the V-2 began its life as a weapon, this launch helped it begin a life of “peaceful service,” leading the U.S. and other countries into the exploration of space.

Of course, we can’t forget the landing of Apollo 15, July 31, 1971, when David Scott and James Irwin set their lunar module down to a perfect landing at Hadley Rille.  With them on the craft was the first Moon buggy, allowing them to travel further from their lunar module than any previous missions.  They drove 17.5 miles, giving them over 18 hours of exploration. They also collected over 170 pounds of samples, obtained a core sample about 10 feet beneath the surface, and set up a mass spectrometer to better determine the composition of the lunar surface.

So much has happened with the Perseverance craft on Mars that it’s so hard to believe it was launched just six years ago.  On July 30, 2020, it flew up from Space Launch Complex 41 to begin an incredible journey, finally setting down on Jezero Crater, in hopes of finding some evidence of ancient life.  It also began collecting samples of martian soil, with the hopes of them being picked up and sent to Earth, but unfortunately that program has been shelved.  In addition, Perseverance had a passenger with it, the first helicopter to travel on another planet.  Ingenuity was to fly just a few times, but it totally exceeded its lifespan, going 72 flights before finally ending its mission.  And, there’s still more being determined from this amazing craft.   

Keep watching the skies.  It’s such a beautiful reminder of the joy of life.