08/04/2026
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/195GEXrQ8r/
August 2026 is one of the best months of the year for skywatchers, featuring eclipses, meteor showers, planetary conjunctions, and rare planetary gatherings. Here’s what to mark on your calendar:
⸻
🌙 August 9: The Moon passes close to Mars, creating a beautiful pre-dawn conjunction visible from many parts of the world.
🌑 August 12: A Total Solar Eclipse will occur, with totality lasting up to 2 minutes 18 seconds along its path. A partial eclipse will also be visible across a much wider region.
☄️ August 12–13: The Perseid Meteor Shower reaches its peak under a new Moon, providing ideal dark-sky conditions. Under excellent skies, observers may see 50–100 meteors per hour.
🪐 August 13: Six planets—Mercury, Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—can be found in the morning sky. While Mercury, Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn are visible to the naked eye, Uranus and Neptune require binoculars or a telescope.
✨ August 15: Mercury and Jupiter appear in a close conjunction before sunrise, separated by less than 1° in the sky.
🌕 August 28: A deep partial lunar eclipse will occur, with up to about 96% of the Moon entering Earth’s umbral shadow, making it one of the deepest partial lunar eclipses in recent years.