The Sky Tonight: August 2025

The Casual Observer 

August brings america into nan play of Djilba. This is simply a transitional play wherever wintertime continues but yet gives measurement to caller growth. 

The Milky Way continues to predominate nan nighttime entity nary matter wherever you look. The further you tin get distant from immoderate lights, nan better. Look to Scorpius and Sagittarius to place nan mediate of nan postulation pinch its agleam prima fields. 

Image: Scorpius and Sagittarius people nan centre of nan Milky Way.
Credit: Stellarium 

Facing east, Venus and Jupiter put connected a show successful nan greeting skies. All month, Venus seems to bent supra nan horizon, while Jupiter rises higher successful nan entity time by day to shake hands it. On nan mornings of August 12 and 13 they will beryllium wrong 1 grade of each other, little than nan width of your thumbnail astatine arms length, but you tin still spell and look astatine them any time this month. Venus is nan brighter 1 successful these views. 

Image: Venus and Jupiter astatine closest attack arsenic seen connected August 12.
Credit: Stellarium 

You mightiness spot things astir nan Perseid meteor ablution successful your news feeds this month. Unfortunately, we can’t really spot overmuch of this ablution from Australia. If you unrecorded correct up northbound aliases successful nan Top End you mightiness spot immoderate meteors debased connected nan bluish sky connected nan mornings of August 12/13. From Perth, you’re amended disconnected looking astatine Venus and Jupiter instead. 

ISS sightings from Perth 

The International Space Station passes overhead aggregate times a day. Most of these passes are excessively faint to spot but a mates of notable sightings* are: 

*Note: These predictions are only meticulous a fewer days successful advance. Check nan sources linked for much precise predictions connected nan time of your observations. 

Moon phases 

First Quarter: August 1 

Full Moon: August 9 

Last Quarter: August 16 

New Moon: August 23 

Dates of interest 

Aug 12: Closest brushwood of Venus and Jupiter 

Aug 24: 19th day of Pluto being reclassified arsenic a Dwarf Planet 

Aug 28: Moon adjacent to Mars 

Planets to look for 

Venus and Jupiter predominate nan eastbound greeting entity this month. Keep your oculus retired for nan adjacent brushwood connected August 12/13. They are joined by Mercury debased successful nan entity successful nan 2nd half of nan month. 

Mars is location successful nan northwest aft sunset, though it’s not very bright. It will proceed to bent location for nan adjacent mates of months. Saturn is rising successful nan eastbound astatine astir 8:30pm this period truthful if you’re up a spot later its yellowish tinge will make for a bully show successful nan northeastern sky. 

Constellation of nan month 

Norma – The Set Square 

Norma is simply a mini constellation successful nan confederate entity and is often represented arsenic a group quadrate aliases carpenter’s square. The constellation was named by Nicolas-Loius de Lacaille, that powerhouse of constellation mappers who named 13 much constellations successful summation to Norma. All of these were named aft devices of nan Age of Enlightenment.  

Image: Norma, nan group square, pinch Scorpius and Centaurus for reference.
Credit: Stellarium 

Norma straddles portion of nan Milky Way – nan Norma Arm arsenic it is called – so contains fields of countless millions of stars and also allows views extracurricular our postulation to nan distant universe, each while being rather faint. Gamma Norma – nan brightest prima successful nan constellation – comes successful astatine only a measly magnitude 4 and everything other successful nan constellation is fainter than that. 

Offering a position to nan distant universe, Norma contains galore heavy entity objects. Perhaps astir visually striking is nan Jellyfish Galaxy successful nan Norma Cluster. This postulation is moving done a peculiarly dense postulation cluster and nan surrounding guidance of intergalactic state strips worldly from nan postulation into a agelong tail. The affinity is for illustration putting your caput successful beforehand of a pedestal instrumentality and letting it rustle your hairsbreadth backmost down you. 

Image: The Jellyfish Galaxy.
Credit: ESA/Hubble, CC BY 4.0. 

Astronmers studying distant galaxies successful nan constellation of Norma noticed that – aft accounting for nan activity of nan galaxies caused by the expanding beingness – nan galaxies were each still moving successful nan aforesaid guidance towards… something. That thing is now called nan ‘Great Attractor’, whose gravity dominates nan adjacent beingness successful this direction. Unfortunately, nan Great Attractor lies straight successful nan statement of show of nan Milky Way, truthful is obscured by nan stars and state successful our ain galaxy. Further study has lead to nan conclusion that nan Great Attractor is nan cardinal constituent of an moreover larger supercluster of galaxies called Laniakea, of which nan Milky Way is part. 

Object for nan mini telescope 

Venus and Jupiter  

The adjacent brushwood of Venus and Jupiter connected nan greeting of August 12 makes for fantabulous viewing successful moreover a debased powered telescope. You whitethorn moreover beryllium capable to resoluteness immoderate of Jupiter’s moons aliases nan shape of Venus.  

Image: Jupiter and nan location of nan Galilean moons connected August 12.
Credit: Stellarium. 

Image: The shape of Venus connected August 12. Credit: Stellarium.