SKY GUIDE: This map represents the night sky as it appears over Maine during August. The stars are shown as they appear at 10:30 p.m. early in the month, at 9:30 p.m. at midmonth, and at 8:30 p.m. at month’s end. Saturn is shown at its midmonth position. To use the map, hold it vertically and turn it so that the direction you are facing is at the bottom. Sky Chart prepared by Seth Lockman

The first of August always marks the midway point of summer for us in the northern hemisphere. The word derives its meaning from the Latin word “augere,” which means to increase. Augustus was a title given to the Roman Emperor and it means esteemed, venerable, or worthy of respect.

We will have many chances this month to practice respect for the sky and the earth as the nights are slowly getting shorter again and the temperatures remain hotter than normal. The highlights this month include the most famous of all meteor showers, the Perseids on Aug. 12, and a couple of evening planets low in our western sky, Venus, and Mercury. Then Saturn rises a little earlier each day, starting this month out by rising around 10 p.m. and rising at 8 p.m. by the end of the month. The biggest asteroid, Ceres, will be at its best in Sagittarius at 8th magnitude and Comet 13P/Olbers will reach 8th or 9th magnitude in the Ursa Major this month. The best planetary conjunction this month will be Mars and Jupiter being only one third of a degree apart in Taurus one hour before sunrise on Aug. 14, just two days after the Perseids peak. Then there are always some nice lunar conjunctions to look for and photograph. A potential great highlight anytime between now and the beginning of autumn or even sometime before the end of this year is the recurrent nova T Corona Borealis that I wrote about last month.

Venus is slowly climbing a little higher each night as it is catching up with us in its faster orbit around the sun. It is nearly fully illuminated by the sun now, but not very bright since it is small and farther from the earth than usual. Look for it very low in the western sky in Leo half an hour after sunset. Keep watching as a thin waxing crescent moon joins it on the evening of Aug. 5. Look for Mercury just under 10 degrees below and to the left of Venus.

Mercury will disappear by the middle of the month as it goes through inferior conjunction with the sun on Aug. 18. Our first planet will reappear low in the morning sky about an hour before sunrise on the last day of this month. Mercury is now about 100 times fainter than Venus.

Then there will be a short gap in the planetary action in the evening sky before Saturn rises in the eastern part of Aquarius near Pisces at 10 p.m. Its rings are nearly edge-on now, tilted at only 3 degrees, so it will not look that spectacular in a telescope, but it is still a great and unbelievable sight, especially if you have never seen it before. It is about the same brightness as Mercury, which is 100 times fainter than Venus. Saturn will reach opposition when it rises at sunset and remains in our sky all night long next month on Sept. 8.

Then Mars rises next around 2 a.m. in Taurus close to its brightest star, named Aldebaran. This is an orange giant star located 65 light years away. That means the light you are seeing from that star tonight left there in 1959, about the time our first satellite was launched and we started the space race with Russia. Aldebaran is only 1/10th of a magnitude fainter than Mars and about the same orange color. Mars is still far ahead of us in our orbits, but we are slowly catching up with it. That will happen in January of next year when Mars will reach opposition. Taurus will still look like it has two bright orange eyes, Aldebaran and Mars for all of this month and right into fall. Notice that Mars is only 5 degrees to the left of Aldebaran.

Then Jupiter rises about the same time in Taurus just to the left of Aldebaran and it appears 16 times brighter than Mars. We are also catching up with Jupiter in our orbits around the sun. That will happen on Dec. 6, about three months after the Saturn opposition.

Jupiter will begin its westward or retrograde motion on Oct. 9 after it traveles into Gemini. Notice the waning crescent moon just 5 degrees north of Jupiter and Mars on Aug. 27.

You can see Ceres now traveling through Sagittarius at 8th magnitude in a good pair of binoculars. That is our largest asteroid at 600 miles across, or about the size of Texas. Ceres is now also officially a dwarf planet, and it was the first asteroid to be discovered on Jan. 1, 1801. The Dawn spacecraft visited Ceres and Vesta in 2015.

Comet 13P/Olbers is now departing our skies as it is traveling through the Big Dipper into Coma Berenices. It is only about 9th magnitude, so you will need a telescope or very good pair of binoculars to see it.

The last remaining highlight is the most famous of all meteor showers, the Perseids. It should be a good year for the Perseids, since the first quarter moon sets around midnight that night, which gives you the rest of the night to enjoy this great shower. Meteor showers are usually better after midnight anyway, because that is when the earth turns into the shower instead of away from it. That is similar to the snowflakes on your windshield during a snowstorm. You would be looking out the back window before midnight and you would look at the front window driving right into the snow after midnight.

Caused by Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, up to 100 meteors per hour can be expected this year from a good dark-sky site. The shower actually starts on July 17 and lasts through Aug. 24, but it will peak on Aug. 11-12. This comet has a fairly long orbital period of 133 years. It was last close to the sun and earth in 1992, and it will not return for 100 more years, in 2125. There were several years of really outstanding Perseid Meteors around the time of this comet’s last return. Comet Swift-Tuttle is in the constellation of Hydra the Sea Snake now, and you would need a good telescope to see it. The radiant is in Perseus, which rises in the northeast around 10 p.m. Look about 30 to 40 degrees away from the radiant to catch most of the meteors, but they will be visible anywhere in the sky, although you can trace each one back to this radiant in Perseus.

Then the last remaining highlight could be the best one, the sudden explosion of the “Blaze Star,” T Corona Borealis. This is the brightest recurrent nova in our sky and it flares up about every 80 years. It is located 3,000 light years away just to the left and below the second star in Corona Borealis, a semicircle of stars that looks like an upside down crown. It could get as bright as Jupiter or Mars, but most likely it will get about as bright as Polaris, which is a second magnitude star, the 48th brightest star in our sky.

AUGUST HIGHLIGHTS

Aug. 4: Mercury is stationary in the sky, about to begin its retrograde or westward motion. New moon is at 7:13 a.m.. Venus passes 1.1 degrees north of Regulus in Leo this evening.

Aug. 5: Mars passes 5 degrees north of Aldebaran this morning. The moon passes 1.7 degrees north of Venus and 7 degrees north of Mercury this evening. Neil Armstrong was born in 1930. He was the first human to walk on the moon on July 20, 1969. His famous quote “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” is still true today and can lead us on to many far more amazing discoveries than just walking on the moon.

Aug. 6: The Curiosity Rover was launched to Mars on this day in 2012.

Aug. 8: The moon is at apogee, or farthest from Earth, today at 251,800 miles.

Aug. 12: The Perseid meteor shower peaks. It should be favorable this year, with up to 100 meteors per hour possible from a dark sky site after the moon sets around midnight. First quarter moon is at 11:19 a.m.

Aug. 14: The moon passes less than 1/10th of a degree south of Antares in Scorpius at 1 a.m. Antares is an orange super giant star similar in size and distance to Betelgeuse in Orion and is about 700 times larger than our sun. The moon passes 0.3 degrees north of Jupiter this morning.

Aug. 19: Full moon is at 2:26 p.m. This is also known as the Blueberry, Green Corn or Sturgeon Moon.

Aug. 20: The moon passes half a degree north of Saturn around midnight tonight.

Aug. 21: The moon is at perigee or closest to Earth today at 223,815 miles.

Aug. 25: In 2003, the Spitzer Infrared Space Telescope was launched as part of the great family of four space telescopes to study the heavens in different wavelengths. It stopped working in January of 2020.

Aug. 26: Last quarter moon is at 5:26 a.m.

Aug. 27: The moon passes 6 degrees north of Jupiter and 5 degrees north of Mars this morning in Taurus. Mercury is stationary again, ending its retrograde motion.