Planet Scenes August 2026
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August 31: Mars and Jupiter in the Morning Mars and Jupiter are well placed in the morning sky during the two hours before sunrise, aligned along the ecliptic angled high up from the eastern horizon. Mars shines at magnitude +1.26, which brings it almost to the level of Pollux (mag +1.15), while Jupiter emerges from its solar conjunction below (to the east of) the Beehive Cluster, M44. |
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August 29: Venus in the Evening Venus is edging ever closer to Spica, and continuing to trend farther south of the ecliptic with each day. |
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August 28: Lunar Eclipse and Planets in Pisces North America was graced with a front-row seat to an almost total lunar eclipse on the night of August 27/28, which I viewed from southern Virginia where the skies were clear, and while the Moon was still emerging from the Earth's umbra, I got a picture of Saturn and Neptune in Pisces. |
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August 25: Two Views of the Sun I was so disappointed in the performance of my Sigma 600 mm reflex lens for the eclipse in Spain that I have been looking at alternatives, specifically buying a 400 mm Nikkor ED lens that should yield much better image quality. Then I decided to try my Nikkor 500 mm reflex lens again to see how sharp its images are, with the results here. I think it's far superior to the Sigma 600. |
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August 23: Venus in Virgo Venus is still the dominant evening star of late summer, but sinking slowly into the dusk each evening. |
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August 18: Planets in the Morning On the morning of August 18, I managed to get a few snapshots of the three outermost planets and the closest outermost planet arrayed across the morning sky. |
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August 15: Venus and Moon Heading home from New York on the evening of August 15, I saw a nice grouping of Venus and the three day old crescent Moon gathered in the evening sky over a ridgeline west of Interstate 87 near Queensbury, New York. |
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August 12: Solar Eclipse We observed the total solar eclipse from the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Laura won the prize for best picture taken at the eclipse, which I can reduce to the following equation: ( Laura + iPhone13 ) > ( Eric + D600 + 600mm lens + D5000 + 35mm lens + 2 solar filters + 2 Velbon tripods ) LOL. |
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