The Summer Milky Way
 | Author:
Jeff Ross
Contributor |
This week the Moon passes through its New phase on August 27 and becomes a Waxing Crescent. Waxing means that the visible illuminated slice becomes wider with each passing night until the First Quarter when half of the lunar disc is lit.
When our Moon is in this phase it isn't bright enough to overpower anything else in the night sky. That means this week is great for seeing everything else. Three of the outer planets that are visible with an unaided eye can be seen overnight. Saturn rises around 8:00 p.m. and can be seen all night. Jupiter follows at 9:30 p.m. and Mars rises about midnight. Of course, "rising" actually means that the rotation of Earth makes the planets appear to rise in the night sky.
Mercury and Venus are going to be too near to the Sun to see.
Summer is the best time of the year to see the full glory of the Milky Way, especially on these nights when we have no visible Moon. The river of stars overhead are best viewed with the unaided eye so our field of view isn't curtailed at all. Binoculars still provide a decent amount of sky and will bring out many more stars.
Overhead, all night during the summer is the asterism we call The Summer Triangle. The Summer Triangle is three bright stars, Vega, Deneb and Altair; they are the brightest stars in Lyra, Cygnus and Aquila, respectively. Vega is almost directly overhead so is the easiest to spot. Deneb can be found to the lower left of Vega, Altair is the lowest in the sky.
Once you see the Summer Triangle you'll never have a problem finding it again. It's always a wonderful sight on a warm summer night with the Milky Way dominant right through the middle.
With clear skies, of course.
