August 1
The Swan Opens Its Wings
Sun Position
The Sun sits in early Leo, with a declination near +18°, well north of the celestial equator. Northern Hemisphere days are long but noticeably shorter than the June peak; Southern Hemisphere nights are steadily lengthening toward spring.
Sky Highlight
The Southern Delta Aquariid meteor shower, which peaks around July 30, still produces modest activity in early August, best observed from the Southern Hemisphere, where the radiant in Aquarius climbs higher in a dark southern sky.
Deep Sky Object
M13, the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, is well-placed high in the south for Northern Hemisphere observers on August evenings, though it has already passed its June-July prime; in the Southern Hemisphere it remains low. Roughly 22,000 light-years away and packed with several hundred thousand stars, it is one of the showpieces of a small telescope.
Featured Star
Deneb, the A2Ia blue-white supergiant at the tail of Cygnus the Swan, sits about 2,600 light-years away, so remote that its light left Earth before the Roman Empire rose, yet it shines as one of the brightest stars in the summer sky. A star that treats distance as a minor inconvenience.
Around This Date
- August 1, 1818Maria Mitchell, who would become the first professional female astronomer in the United States and discoverer of a telescopic comet, was born on Nantucket, Massachusetts.
- August 3, 2004NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral on its seven-year journey to Mercury, eventually becoming the first probe to orbit the innermost planet.
Deneb has been burning at the top of the sky for the length of recorded history, and it will still be there long after our records are gone.