August 26
The Galaxy Road at Full Width
Sun Position
The Sun is in Virgo at approximately +8° declination. Northern Hemisphere evenings are darkening earlier; the Southern Hemisphere is just weeks from the spring equinox.
Sky Highlight
Late August is one of the finest periods for Milky Way observation from both hemispheres: for northern observers, the galactic plane arches from northeast to southwest with Cygnus near the zenith; for southern observers, the galactic core in Sagittarius and Scorpius transits at a useful hour of the evening. On a clear, dark night, the Great Rift (the dark dust lane that splits the Milky Way from Cygnus to Ophiuchus) is plainly visible to the naked eye.
Deep Sky Object
M39, an open cluster in Cygnus, lies only about 800 light-years away and spans nearly a degree of sky. It is a loose, triangular group of roughly 30 stars well placed for Northern Hemisphere observers in August and accessible in binoculars, making it a useful naked-eye calibration target when exploring the Cygnus field.
Featured Star
Deneb, the A2Ia blue-white supergiant 2,600 light-years away, is near the zenith for mid-northern observers tonight, embedded in the densest portion of the northern Milky Way. The star's distance estimate has historically ranged from 1,400 to 3,000 light-years depending on the method; Gaia data has refined this to the higher end of that range.
Around This Date
- August 25, 2012Voyager 1 crossed the heliopause into interstellar space, carrying the Golden Record, a compilation of sounds, images, and greetings from Earth intended as a message to any future finder.
- August 28, 1993Galileo spacecraft captured images of asteroid 243 Ida and its tiny companion Dactyl, proving that asteroids can have their own natural satellites, a concept that had been theorized but never confirmed.
The Milky Way in late August is wide and dark-laned and worth the trouble of getting somewhere without streetlights.