The Night Sky This Month

Northern HemisphereIan Morison tells us what we can see in the Northern Hemisphere night sky during August 2018.The PlanetsJupiter - Jupiter can be seen in the southwest soon after sunset at the start of the month. It shines at magnitude -2.1 (falling to -1.9 during the month) and has a disk some 38 (falling to 35) arc seconds across. Jupiter's equatorial bands, sometimes the Great Red Spot and up to four of its Gallilean moons will be visible in a small telescope. Sadly, now moving slowly eastwards in Libra, Jupiter is heading towards the southern part of the ecliptic and will only have an elevation of ~15 degrees after sunset. Atmospheric dispersion will thus hinder our view and it might be worth considering purchasing the ZWO Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector to counteract its effects. Saturn - Saturn was at opposition on the 27th of June and so will be visible in the south at an elevation of ~15 degrees after sunset at the beginning of August. Its disk has an angular size of 18 arc seconds falling to 17