Sky Guide August 2015

What to look out, and up, for in August. This month we take a look at the constellation of Cepheus the King for the beginners guide – we have the first galactic tape measure: the original Cepheid Variable, a red supergiant star: Hershel’s Garnet Star and the Elephant’s Trunk Nebula. Next we round up the planets that are visible in August: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus & Neptune. We look at the month’s moon phases and enjoy a supermoon (or perigee-syzergy) on the 29th. August treats us to the best meteor shower of the year – the Perseids – falling on the 12th August with no moon to dampen the show. We also look forward to rare comet conjunction occurs in August with Rosetta’s Comet 67/P and comet 141/P sharing the same field of view in telescopes. For our deep sky challenge we look at the constellation of Aquarius for a tour of globular clusters and planetary nebulae.