Here’s a brief look at what’s going on in the Mile High City this week.
August 11:
- DAS Monthly General Meeting: “Footloose Astronomer in Europe: On the Trail of Telescope History” presented by Dr. Phil Kelton McDonald Observatory (Retired): In-person at Regis University’s Peter Claver Hall, Room 315 or Zoom (check your membership email): 7:00 – 9:00PM
August 12:
- Catch the conjunction of our two brightest planets – Venus and Jupiter are within a degree of each other – low in the early morning eastern sky in Gemini: Around 4:30 AM
- Look for the waning gibbous Sturgeon Moon next to Saturn in Pisces from about midnight until sunrise.
- Persied Meteor Shower Peaks
- Standley Lake Stargazing: Persieds Watch Party: Majestic View Nature Center: 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
- Frisco’s “Park after Dark: Stargazing”: Frisco Historic Park and Museum: 9:00 PM
August 13:
- Night Sky Network: Cosmic Conversation: International Observe the Moon Night: Youtube Livestream: 6:00 PM
August 14:
- Dark Sky International: Advocate Action: Lighting the Way to Darkness: A Community Story – with Dajana Bjelajac: Virtual on Zoom at 12:00 PM or 6:00 PM
- Standley Lake Stargazing: One Giant Leap Part 5: Triumphs and Tragedies on Gemini 8: Virtual on Zoom: 6:00 PM
- Moon at perigee (closest to Earth at 369,288km): 12:04 PM
August 15:
- Astronomy in the Park: Rocky Mountain National Park Park N Ride: 8:30 PM – 11:00 PM
- Colorado Springs Stargazing: Mueller State Park VIsitor’s Center: 8:30 PM
- Last quarter Sturgeon Moon: 11:12 PM
August 16:
- Lights Off Lyons: Lyons Regional Library and Bohn Park: 5:00 PM until Late
- Westcliffe Public Star Party: Smokey Jack Observatory: 9:00 PM
- Moon near the Pleiades
August 17:
- Look for M31 the Andromeda Galaxy to grace our skies as we head into autumn. M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, is the closest large spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way and is visible to the naked eye under dark skies as a faint, elongated smudge in the constellation Andromeda. It’s a barred spiral galaxy located about 2.54 million light-years away, spanning over 220,000 light-years in diameter. With binoculars or a small telescope, its bright core and some dust lanes become visible, and it’s one of the farthest objects the human eye can see without optical aid. Look for M31 in Andromeda in the north eastern skies after 10:30 PM.
Sky Map
- The pdf map of the night sky from SkyMaps.com can be found at https://www.skymaps.com/skymaps
This Week’s Meteoric Activity:
You can keep track of the activity of meteor showers as well as those beyond the limits of visual observing by visiting the NASA Meteor Shower Portal.
- Perseids: last hour before dawn in western Perseus: up to 50 per hour.
- alpha Capricornids (CAP): 1:00 AM in northwestern Capricornus: 1 per hour
- Southern delta Aquariids (SDA): 4:00 AM in western Aquarius: 1 per hour
- Anthelion (ANT): 2:00 AM in central Capricornus: 1 per hour.
- kappa Cygnids (KCG) 11:00 PM in northwestern Cygnus: 1 per hour.
- eta Eridanids (ERI) last hour before dawn in western Eridanus: 1 per hour.
Clear skies and happy stargazing!
