What to look out, and up, for in August.

With no Jeni this month, Ralph & Paul pick their highlights for this month’s skies; starting with the solar system objects on offer to observers and imagers:

• Mars just past opposition as impressive as last month
• A round up of the other planets on view
• The Perseid Meteor Shower peaking on 12/13th August

Next up, we take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year:

• Open clusters Messier 11 & Messier 26 in Scutum
• Globular cluster NGC6712 & planetary nebula IC1295 in Scutum
• Peculiar galaxy NGC7727 in Aquarius

And we finish this sky guide with August’s moon phases.