In Manx skies... August 2008 ~ compiled by Dave Storey
Moon	New 1^st at 10.13h First Quarter 8^th at 20.20h Full 16^th at 21.16h Last Quarter 23^rd at 23.50h	Graphic © Copyright CalculatorCat.com Note: All times are Universal Time (UT) BST is currently in force. Add 1 hr. to any quoted times to get local IoM time. There is one solar and one lunar eclipse this month. Partial Solar Eclipse This eclipse is total that starts in northern Canada crossing Greenland, Russia, Mongolia and ending in China. From the Isle of Man, we will only see a partial eclipse that will cover 29% of the suns disc at maximum. See graphic right. The best way to observe this eclipse is by the projection method only. WARNING: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO VIEW THIS DIRECTLY WITH OPTICAL AID AS BLINDNESS WILL RESULT! The Moon will enter the suns disc at 08.25.05hUT and leave the suns disc at 10.05.05hUT. Click here for more details. Partial Lunar Eclipse When the Moon rises on the 16^th, at 19.32h it will soon enter the earth's umbral shadow 4 minutes later. Maximum eclipse of 81% will occur at 21.10hrs. Click here for more details.
Mercury	Is to the left of the sun and draws away from the sun during the month. The planet is low down and in bright twilight and will be a difficult object to see from Manx shores. On the 20^th, an opportunity to glimpse the planet through binoculars will occur using the bright planet Venus as a guide. On this date, Mercury passes just less than one degree south of Venus.
Venus	Like Mercury, Venus is to the left of the sun and starts to make an appearance in the evening sky, low down in the west after sunset. It will be unmistakable beacon shining at magnitude -3.9
Mars	Lingers in the twilight sky after sunset but is not a viable planet to image through a telescope due to its distance and low position in the sky. It moves from Leo into Virgo on the 8^th.
Jupiter	Rises at 18.53hrs at the beginning of the month in the constellation Sagittarius and rises at 16.50 by the end of the month. The planet should be easily identified in the evening sky, low in the south, shining at a bright magnitude of -2.7 to -2.5. As seen through a telescope, the parallel equatorial belts should easily be seen along with the four bright moons that change positions night after night, either side of the planet.
Saturn	Is found in the evening sky after sunset in the west. It is well past its best viewing time as it moves ever closer to the sun.
Uranus	Rises at 21.20 at the start of the month and 19.20 at months end. It shines dimly in Aquarius at magnitude +5.7 and you will need at least a pair of binoculars to see it. Use the star charts below to locate the planet. Click on images for a detailed view.
Neptune	Reaches opposition on the 15^th when it will rise in the east as the sun sets. You will need a telescope and a good star chart to find this planet which shines at a dim +7.8 Click here for a star chart showing its location in Capricornus and click here for a close up view. Graphics based on Guide 8 data.
Meteors	Alpha-Capricornids are active between July 15^th until August 20^th. Peak activity occurs on 2^nd August when a maximum of 2-3 meteors per hour may be seen in ideal conditions. Long slow moving fireballs are sometimes seen. Iota-Aquarids peak on the night of 6^th with 2-3 meteors per hour and may be seen during the months of July and August. They are usually faint meteors and radiate from two positions in the sky. Persieds are seen between July 23^rd to August 20^th. This years maximum occurs on 12^th during daylight hours, so observations on the nights of 11^th, 12^th and 13^th should be good. The maximum of 80 meteors per hour can be expected in ideal conditions but the 11 day old Moon will interfere with its bright glare that will drown out some of the fainter meteors.
Algol	This star drops from magnitude +2.1 to +3.4 in about 5 hours. Minimum of this star is reached on the following date as seen from the IoM: 15^th at 04.18h, 18^th at 01.06h and 20^th at 21.54h. Click here for star chart
Comet	There are no predicted bright comets.
The Stars	Graphic based on Guide 8 data. The summer sky in August is a joy to observe when the nights are clear and the temperatures are warm. You may be out during August nights in search of Perseid meteors. While looking, notice three bright stars towards the high southern half of the sky that form an upside down triangle. The top two stars are Vega (magnitude +0.1) in Lyra and Deneb (magnitude +1.3) in Cygnus. The bottom apex star is Altair (magnitude +0.9) residing in the constellation Aquila. As seen from earth, the brightest star is Vega, followed by Altair and Deneb being the faintest. In reality, Deneb is the brightest but due to its immense distance, it appears the fainter of the three. Vega is 52 times the sun's luminosity at a distance of 25 light years. Aquila is 10 times the sun's luminosity at a distance of 16.6 light years and Deneb is a whopping 70,000 times the sun's luminosity but is 1800 light years away. There are two planetary nebulae that are worthy of tracking down with binoculars and telescopes. M27 resides in the constellation Vulpecula and appears as a misty “dumbbell” shape patch of cloud in binoculars and telescopes. It is relatively bright as nebula go, shining at +7.6 and has a major axis dimension of 5.8 arc minutes. (by comparison, the moon is 30 arc minutes). It lies at about 1050 light years away. In Lyra, we have a more spectacular planetary nebula with the name “Ring Nebula” catalogued with number M57. It is dimensionally smaller than the dumbbell at 1.2 arc minutes wide and much fainter at +9.7 magnitude. Its distance is similar at 1080 light years. I have seen it in 10x50mm binoculars but it just looks like a faint star. Better to view the nebula with a large telescope that will show the smoke ring structure. There is a challenging object within the ring. See if you can pick out the faint +14.8 magnitude star as shown in the above image.