The Planets
Planet Data For August
Click on any planet below to go straight to its section.
The table below shows key data for the planets this month, including rise, transit and set times, as well as magnitude, apparent size and position data (right ascension and declination).
Events that occur when the sun is below the horizon are shown with a black background and white text. All other events happen when the sun is in the sky and other for not visible for observation.
In August, nearly all of the planets are putting on a morning show. Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are all comfortably visible before dawn breaks. Saturn is making such progress towards its opposition that it’ll be viewable before midnight at the month’s end.
Mercury begins the month visible before sunset. We lose it in the middle weeks and might just spy it in the morning before sunrise at the end of August. Only Venus holds up any planetary showing in the evening.
All of the images below can be opened full screen in a new tab by clicking on them
Mercury
05th August
Mercury sets a short while after the sun. Here, it’s 5° above the western horizon, with a sliver of moon as a backdrop.
15th August
This planet moves quickly and already it’s too close to the sun for us to see it again.
25th August
Mercury passed in front of the sun about a week ago and is a morning planet again. We might just spy it by the end of the month.
Mercury tops and tails the month of August. In the first few nights, we can see it after sunset, low in the west. After its inferior conjunction on the 19th, when it passes in front of the sun, it becomes a morning planet.
Look for it on the last day of August, half an hour before sunrise, and you’ll see it almost 10° above the eastern horizon. It’ll be shining at magnitude 0.7 and your telescope will reveal a disc that’s only one-quarter illuminated.
Venus
05th August
At 9pm, Venus is only just above the horizon, forming a neat little conjunction with the 36-hour-old moon.
15th August
This view at 8:45 shows Venus pulling away from the sun but the shallow ecliptic stops it rising high over the horizon.
25th August
The same is true ten days later. The sky is darker at 8:30 now, but Venus still grazes the western horizon.
We’ll struggle to see much of the brightest planet this month. It is moving further away from the sun but the ecliptic is so shallow that the planet barely gets 5° above it when the sky is dark enough for us to look at it.
Looking at the disc through a telescope will reveal that it barely changes in size all month, ranging from 10 to 11 arcseconds. Even its disc illumination level ony changes marginally, from almost fully lit to about 90% at the end of August.
Mars
05th August
At 5am, we’ll see Mars high in the east, chaperoned in Taurus by the brighter Jupiter.
15th August
We’re treated to the same two planets almost colliding this morning. Both will comfortably fit inside the same 1° field eyepiece.
25th August
Jupiter has moved past Mars now, which is still high in the east at five in the morning.
We’re treated to seeing Jupiter and Mars chasing each other through Taurus this month. The height of the excitement is on the 15th, when they come within one degree of each other. You can use this opportunity to conduct a very enjoyable ‘compare and contrast’ moment.
What’s also good news is that the Martian disc is starting to grow in a meaningful way now. It grows 10% over this month, from 5.9 to 6.5 arcseconds across. It’s a good few months until we’re as close as we get, in the middle of January next year, but we’re already getting better views of the planet than we’ve had for about a year and a half now.
Perhaps more excitingly, we’ll be able to start watching it before bedtime next month!
Jupiter
05th August
One-third of the way between the eastern horizon and overhead is where we’ll find bright Jupiter at 5 o’clock this morning.
15th August
Jupiter’s magnitude is -2.2, Mars’s is 0.8. You can compare them side by side in the same view this morning.
25th August
Jupiter is riding between the horns of Taurus the bull this morning.
Jupiter reaches its opposition a month before Mars, and we can see its size already reflecting that pending approach. The disc of this giant planet grows from below 35 to almost 38 arcseconds across in the space of the month.
Other than that, the trajectory is similar to that of Mars including, of course, their conjunction on the 15th.
Saturn
05th August
Technically, we can see Saturn before midnight now but it’s much better viewed before dawn, when it’s higher in the sky.
15th August
This is the view at 4am, and with less than a month to go before the planet reaches opposition.
25th August
Making the switch to an evening view now, this is Saturn at 11pm, 25° above the southeast horizon.
The ringed planet reaches opposition next month. This is when it’ll be closer, larger and brighter than the rest of the year. However, it is such a long distance from us, that there is surprisingly little variety across the year, certainly nothing like the variation we see in Mars or Jupiter.
It’s disc grows marginally to just over 19 arcseconds, and brightens to magnitude 0.6. A glimpse through your telescope will reveal that its rings are really shallow right now. They’ll be edge-on to us in 2025.
Uranus & Neptune
15th August – Uranus
At five o’clock this morning, Uranus is high in the east, near the Pleiades.
15th August – Neptune
At the same time, Neptune is further to the west, not so far from Saturn, in the constellation of Pisces.
Both of our most distant planets are easy enough to pick out in the early hours this month. Aim to do it when the moon is not nearby to better see the subtleties of their coloring.
All Planets Viewer
Use the table below to see when each of the planets is observable for each day this month. Click on it for full screen.
A planet is classed as observable when it is more than 10° above the horizon and the sky is dark enough for it to be observed.
Planet ephemeris tables produced with the kind permission of Dominic Ford. Sky images are courtesy of SkySafari Pro 6.