August is shaping up to be one of the best months of the year for skywatching, and Central Texas is a good seat for most of it. We've got the year's best Perseid meteor shower, a deep partial lunar eclipse that will look almost total, Venus blazing away all evening, and the summer Milky Way still riding high overhead after dark. Here's what I'm keeping an eye on this month.
🌙 Moon Phases
Last Quarter, August 5. Half lit, rising after midnight and sitting high before dawn. This kicks off one of the best dark sky stretches of the whole year, running from about the 6th through the 15th, with no bright moon around to wash things out in the evening. Good week to plan a Milky Way session.
New Moon, August 12. No moon at all this night, and it lines up with two big events. Earlier in the day, the new moon passes directly in front of the sun, creating a total solar eclipse across northern Russia, Greenland, Iceland and northern Spain. We won't see that from Texas, but the payoff for us comes after dark, when the Perseid meteor shower hits its peak under a completely moonless sky. More on that below.
First Quarter, August 20. Half the moon lit up in the evening sky, a nice night for detailed lunar viewing since the terminator, that line between light and shadow, runs across some good crater country.
Full Sturgeon Moon, August 27. This one gets its name from sturgeon fishing being especially good this time of year on the Great Lakes. It rises the evening of the 27th and is up bright most of the night, but this month it comes with a real treat. Earth's shadow will cover about 96 percent of the moon's face in a deep partial lunar eclipse, close enough to a total eclipse that it should still glow that coppery red "blood moon" color. The partial phase gets underway around 9:33 PM CDT, with the deepest point of the eclipse around 11:12 PM CDT, and it wraps up a little after midnight heading into the 28th. No filters or glasses needed, just find a spot with a clear view toward the moon and enjoy the show.
🪐 Planetary Happenings
Venus is putting on its best show of the year in the evening sky. Look west after sunset, you honestly can't miss it, it's the blazing "evening star." It reaches greatest eastern elongation, its farthest apparent distance from the sun, around August 14 to 16, which is when an evening planet is typically at its best and easiest to view. On the 15th, a thin crescent moon parks itself nearby for a pretty pairing. If you're following it with a telescope, Venus is heading toward dichotomy this month too, the point where it looks exactly half lit, like a tiny first quarter moon.
Saturn is a morning object, rising before midnight and climbing high in the south before dawn. It's building toward its October opposition, so it's getting brighter and rising a little earlier each night. The rings, which have been nearly edge on for a while now, are slowly opening back up, so it's worth pointing a telescope at it.
Mars is also a morning planet, working its way eastward through Taurus and on toward Gemini. It's easy to pick out with just your eyes as a reddish point low in the east before sunup.
Mercury reaches greatest elongation west on August 2, its best morning appearance of the stretch, then slowly sinks back into the sun's glare as the month goes on. On the morning of the 15th, keep an eye out for Mercury passing close to Jupiter, low near the horizon before sunrise, worth a look with binoculars if you've got a clear eastern view.
Jupiter is just returning to the morning sky after being lost in the sun's glare in July. It's bright, but it stays very low in the dawn twilight all month, so you'll need a clear view down to the horizon to catch it.
☄️ Meteor Showers
Perseids. This is the big one, and 2026 is shaping up to be a great year for it. The shower peaks on the night of August 12 into the early hours of August 13, right at new moon, so there's no moonlight at all to interfere. Under a truly dark sky, forecasters are calling for somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 to 100 meteors an hour at the peak, though from a typical backyard you'll see fewer than that. The best window is late night through the couple hours before dawn on the 13th, when the radiant up in Perseus is riding high. Get away from town lights if you can, give your eyes twenty minutes or so to adjust, and just look up. Rating: excellent this year, thanks to that dark moonless sky.
Southern Delta Aquariids and Alpha Capricornids. Both of these carried over from late July and are winding down through the first week or so of August. Rates are low at this point, but the Capricornids occasionally throw a bright fireball, so it's worth a glance if you happen to be out there already.
☄️ Comet Watch
Comet 10P/Tempel 2 is at its best right at the start of the month. It reached perihelion on August 2 and made its closest pass by Earth on August 3, hovering around magnitude 7 to 8, which puts it within reach of binoculars or a small telescope from a dark site, though it stays too faint for the naked eye. It's a morning object, low in the south before dawn, moving from Capricornus toward Piscis Austrinus. After this first week or two, it starts fading fast and will likely drop below magnitude 10 by mid-September, so if you want to catch it, early August is the window.
🔭 Deep Sky Objects for August
With the summer Milky Way still arching overhead after dark, August holds onto July's great lineup toward Sagittarius and Scorpius, plus a couple of favorites in Hercules and Cygnus. Best viewed during that dark stretch between the 6th and the 15th, and especially around the new moon on the 12th. Toward the end of the month, watch the eastern sky start bringing in some fall targets too.
M13, the Hercules Cluster. A globular cluster, a tight ball packed with hundreds of thousands of ancient stars. Naked eye under dark skies, a faint smudge. Binoculars, a nice fuzzy glow. Telescope, it resolves into a sprawl of individual pinpoint stars.
M8, the Lagoon Nebula. A glowing cloud of gas and dust actively forming new stars, sitting in Sagittarius. Naked eye, a fair hazy patch from a dark site. Binoculars show it well. Telescope gives an excellent view.
M20, the Trifid Nebula. Known for the dark dust lanes that seem to split it into three sections. Not visible naked eye. Faint and small in binoculars. In a telescope, especially a bigger one, those dust lanes start to show themselves.
M22, the Sagittarius Cluster. Another bright globular, and one of the closest to us. Naked eye, a faint smudge under dark skies. Good in binoculars, excellent in a telescope.
M57, the Ring Nebula. The glowing shell of gas that a dying, sun-like star puffed off into space. Not visible naked eye, and tough in binoculars since it's so small. In a telescope, a classic little glowing smoke ring hanging in space.
Albireo. A gorgeous double star at the head of Cygnus the Swan, one star gold, one blue. Naked eye, it just looks like a single star. In binoculars, with steady hands, you might just split it into two. In a telescope, it's one of the best color contrast doubles in the whole sky.
The Perseus Double Cluster. Two open star clusters sitting side by side, and a nice one to pick up late in the month as Perseus climbs higher in the northeast during the evening. Naked eye under dark skies, a faint hazy patch. Binoculars show it beautifully. A telescope at low power gives one of the prettiest views in the sky, two clusters worth of stars in the same field.
Clear skies, everyone.
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