The International Space Station will flyover again this evening at 8:29 pm. The station will appear in the northwest sky and disappear in the southeast sky. It will rise to 88 degrees up in the sky and be visible for four minutes. This will be a much better view than last night. The only problem will be some of these clouds hanging around.
But….
Those clouds will make the nearly Full Moon look even more impressive. It will rise at around 8:45 pm.
As always, look for Jupiter in the eastern sky after sunset. That’s the big bright star you see. Trailing a bit behind Jupiter is a fainter “star”. That’s actually Saturn. Jupiter shines 14 times brighter than Saturn. With a telescope, you can see the rings of Saturn and four moons of Jupiter (Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto).
August offers a real planetary treat. You can see Jupiter and Saturn in the evening after sunset, and Mars and Venus in the mornings just before sunrise. That pre-dawn sky will be quite the treat later this month!
The graphic below shows the planets and how they compare in size to each other and to the sun.
We also have the Perseid meteor shower that will peak August 11-13, but it unfortunately coincides with a bright moon, which will really reduce the number of meteors you see. That’s why I haven’t said much about it. Still, I’ll remind you when we get closer to that time.
You all enjoy star gazing and looking for the ISS. Be sure and wave as they go by!
Pictured below was the ISS crew before Behnken and Hurley (far right) returned on Sunday. Now, only the three on the left and in the light blue suits remain until more astronauts arrive.
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