August is a great month for star gazers! The Perseid Meteor shower is the highlight (we will talk about the Perseids next week,) but there is a lot more to see. Planets, meteors, bright stars and even a faint comet grace this month's sky.

     The beginning of August is your last chance to get a glimpse of Comet Linear. You will need binoculars to see this wandering visitor but it is not too hard to find. You will want to look around 10PM in the western sky.

      Comet Linear is residing in the constellation Virgo, a rather dim group of stars except for it's bright star Spica. If you can identify the handle of the Big Dipper and Spica, you should have no trouble finding the comet. Draw an imaginary line between the three stars in the dipper's handle and Spica. Below the line, and about one quarter of the distance from Spica is Comet Linear.

      To see the comet well, you'll need binoculars and a dark sky with no moon. Light pollution will hide any traces of the comet's tail. Make sure you look at the comet the first part of August, because by the fifteenth it will be gone.

      While you are waiting to look for Comet Linear, take the binoculars and gaze along the Milky Way which arches overhead in glorious splendor. The summer triangle stars of Vega, Deneb and Altair frame the Milky Way. Deneb, of Cygnus the Swan is overhead, Vega of Lyra the lyre is just to the west and Altair of Aquilla the eagle is just below to the south.

      This is the best time of the year to view the Milky Way as this is the time when it is highest in the sky. Binoculars will show a myriad of stars and clusters. Our ancestors were mesmerized by this band of light stretching across the dark sky. Many Native American tribes though it was the path which slain warriors followed. The Bushmen of the Kalahari told a story about a time before there were stars in the sky. The night was so dark no one could move about and had to stay in their huts. One small girl, left alone in a hut could not bear to be so alone. She was visited by a spirit who instructed her to take a ladle of glowing embers outside and to throw them up into the sky. The little girl did so and the embers were changed into the stars and the Milky Way.

      After midnight, Jupiter and Saturn can be found rising in the east.  The planets form a slightly lopsided parallelogram with the Hyades and Pleiades star clusters in Taurus the bull. Both these clusters can be seen without visual aid.

      On the night of August 21st the moon forms a straight line with these two giant planets. The next night the moon glides below Saturn and below Jupiter on the 23rd,  Saturn's rings are tilted at nearly their maximum angle, 24 degrees. It makes an awesome sight in binoculars of telescope. Binoculars will also show Jupiter's larger moons.

      Another bright star to look for is Antares in Scorpius the Scorpion (it is incorrect to refer to this constellation as scorpio!)  Antares means the "rival of Mars" and it is a good name for the star. Many a star gazer has mistaken this ruddy red star for the planet Mars. You will find Antares low in the southern sky. Just to the east of Scorpius is the "teapot" in Sagittarius the archer. It is difficult to pick out the star which make up this half man, half horse, but it is quite easy to spot the smaller group of stars which make a good teapot. Happy stargazing!