The sky this month is lovely to behold. Look to the west in the early evening. As the sky darkens you will see stark-white Venus first, then orange-red Mars and finally a fainter yellow Saturn.
They will be sitting in the wing of Virgo. They lie within a binocular field view during the first twelve days of August. Binoculars offer the best view of their contrasting colours.
On August 10th, the three form a near isosceles triangle with Venus at the bottom, Mars to its upper left and Saturn to Venus’ upper right. All three lie within a 7 degree diameter circle. A slender crescent Moon passes several degrees below the trio on August 12th.
If you look a little further to the east, you will see the blue star Spica.
August 12/13 is also the peak night for an outstanding display of Perseid meteors. If you are at a dark site, you will see an average of at lest 60 meteors per hour. The best views will likely be as dawn approaches.
Perseid meteors are dust grains ejected over many millenia by Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. These grains burn up as they enter the Earth’s atmosphere at 37 miles per second, creating the streaks of light we see every August.
On August 10th, expect large tides since the Moon is at perigree (the point nearest the earth's center in the orbit of the moon ) i.e. 357,857 km. from the earth.
