For August 2026, the new moon on August 12 will be no problem for the peak of the Perseid Meteors in the dawn hours; expect perhaps a meteor a minute streaming out of the radiant rising in Perseus, in the northeastern sky. The moon then moves into the evening sky, passing two degrees south of brilliant Venus in the dusk on August 16. The moon is first quarter on August 19. The August full moon, the Thunder Moon, is on August 27-28th, and will feature a partial lunar eclipse. For Pensacola, the partial eclipse starts at 9:30 p.m. on the 27th, and the moon slides south of the center of our shadow, leaving only the extreme northern edge of the moon in direct sunlight about 11:40 p.m. Only about 10% of the moon is still sunlit. The moon’s revolution carries it out of our shadow, with the partial eclipse ending at 12:54 a.m. on the morning of the 28th. This photo from a previous lunar eclipse shows what to expect about midnight.
Venus is in the evening sky, and at its greatest elongation, 46 degrees east of the Sun, on August 15. On the edge of its orbit as seen by us, it appears half lit in the telescope then. Mars is in the dawn sky in Gemini. Jupiter is behind the Sun now, to reappear in the dawn in September. Saturn rises in Pisces about 2 a.m. in Pisces, and will be well placed for viewing later this fall.
For a detailed map of northern hemisphere skies, visit www.skymaps.com.
The Big Dipper rides high in the NW at sunset, but falls lower each evening. Good scouts know to take its leading pointers north to Polaris, the famed Pole Star. For us, it sits 30 degrees (our latitude) high in the north, while the rotating Earth beneath makes all the other celestial bodies spin around it from east to west.
Taking the arc in the Dipper’s handle, we “arc” SE to bright orange Arcturus, the brightest star of Bootes. Cooler than our yellow Sun, and much poorer in heavy elements, some believe its strange motion reveals it to be an invading star from another smaller galaxy, now colliding with the Milky Way in Sagittarius in the summer sky. Moving almost perpendicular to the plane of our Milky Way, Arcturus was the first star in the sky where its proper motion across the historic sky was noted by Edmund Halley.
Spike south from Arcturus to Spica, the hot blue star in Virgo. From Spica, curve to Corvus the Crow, a four-sided grouping. It is above Corvus, in the arms of Virgo, where our large scopes will show members of the Virgo Supercluster, a swarm of over a thousand galaxies about 50 million light years away from us.
Hercules is overhead, with the nice globular cluster M-13 marked on your sky map and visible in binoculars. It is faintly visible with the naked eye under dark sky conditions, and among the best binocular objects on the map back page.
The brightest star of the northern hemisphere, Vega, dominates the NE sky. Binoculars reveal the small star just to the NE of Vega, epsilon Lyrae, as a nice double. Larger telescopes at 150X reveal each of this pair is another close double, hence its nickname, the “double double”…a fine sight under steady sky conditions.
Below Vega are the two bright stars of the Summer Triangle: Deneb (to the north) and Altair. Deneb is at the top of the Northern Cross, known as Cygnus the Swan to the Romans. It is one of the most luminous stars in our Galaxy, about 50,000 times brighter than our Sun. It sits atop the Cross; at the other end is Albireo, a fine orange and blue double star well resolved at 20X by almost any smaller scope. To the south is the southernmost member of the Triangle, Altair, the brightest star of Aquila the Eagle. If you scan the Milky Way with binocs or a small spotting scope between Altair and Deneb, you will find many nice open star clusters and also a lot of dark nebulae, the dust clouds from which new stars will be born in the future.
Our cosmic highlight for August is M-16, the Eagle Nebula, taken by EAAA member James Schultz with his C-14 telescope. Here he shows the central region, the famed “Pillars of Creation”, with the interplay of dark dust and bright young stars; the radiation from these hot, massive stars shapes the pillars and erodes them away over time, a fine cosmic masterpiece, shot in our local skies by a dedicated EAAA observer.
To the southeast, Antares is bright in the heart of Scorpius. It appears reddish (its Greek name means rival of Ares or Mars to the Latins) because it is half as hot as our yellow Sun; it is bright because it is a bloated red supergiant, big enough to swallow up our solar system all the way out to Saturn’s orbit! Just above the tail of the Scorpion are two fine naked-eye star clusters, M-7 (discovered by Ptolemy and included in his catalog about 200 AD) and M-6, making one of the best binocular views in the sky.
East of the Scorpion’s tail is the teapot shape of Sagittarius, which marks the heart of our Milky Way galaxy. Looking like a cloud of steam coming out of the teapot’s spout is the fine Lagoon Nebula, M-8, easily visible with the naked eye. Above it is the Trifid Nebula, M-20, another fine and very colorful stellar nursery.
The Escambia Amateur Astronomers return to Casino Beach for our Pavilion Stargaze Season on the first quarter moon. Meet us south of the famed Beach Ball Water Tower and bring your smartphone to image the Sun (before sunset with our solar scopes), Moon, and constellations. We have free star charts and will show you what’s up. The gazes, if clear skies permit, will be on the Fridays and Saturdays for these weekends: August 14-15, September 18-19, and October 16-17. The Milky Way over the dark Gulf of Mexico will be great then. Venus will be visible in the western sky, Saturn in the east, and the first quarter moon overhead.
For deep skies with much less light pollution, on the weekends of the third quarter moon we continue our cooperation with the Florida State Parks at Big Lagoon State Park. Here the emphasis is on learning to observe and photograph the night sky with binoculars or your own telescopes and smartphones or other cameras. While the Pavilion parking is free, normal entry fees ($6 per car) to Big Lagoon still apply, and remember to check in the front gate before it closes at sunset! We certainly encourage the many campers and scout troops to join us at our site, at the amphitheater at the end of the access road. Our gazes for best imaging of the Milky Way, constellations, and other galaxies are on Saturdays, September 15 and October 13. Bring your smartphones, and we will teach you how to use apps like Nocturne to image the constellations, the Milky Way, meteors, satellites, and hopefully, more auroras!
For more information on the Escambia Amateur Astronomers, join us on Facebook, visit our website at www.eaaa.net, or contact our sponsor, Lauren Rogers at Pensacola State at lrogers@pensacolastate.edu. You can also schedule special gazes at the Airport Approach at Langley and McAlister by calling our moderator, Dr. Wayne Wooten, at (850) 291-9334 or messaging him on Facebook.
