2019 Week 32: (August 4-August 10)

This week in the sky we have a waxing Moon that will reach its first quarter phase on Wednesday.  The past week has been good for deep sky astronomy with clear skies and a Moon completely out of the way.

	Event
August 7	First Quarter
August 9	Jupiter 2°S of Moon
August 9	Mercury Greatest Elongation West

A few nights after the first quarter the Moon will be in conjunction with Jupiter in the south sky.  If you have not had the chance to peek at Jupiter this Summer it is worth finding someone with a telescope who can show you our largest planet.

Jupiter

The morning sky is perfect for viewing Mercury.  It will reach its greatest elongation from the Sun on the 9th and will appear bright in the twilight sky.  Many people do not realize that this diminutive planet is quite the naked eye object.

There are several rocket launches scheduled for this week.  A couple of them are rescheduled launches from the previous week.  On Monday a Proton rocket rocket will be taking off from Kazakhstan with a communications satellite.  More communications satellites will be launched in the following days.  The launch schedule is shown below and you can watch all of these online.

Date	Event
August 5	Proton - Blagovest No. 14L (15:56)
August 6	Ariane 5 - Intelsat 39 & EDRS-C (13:30)
August 6	Falcon 9 - Amos 17 (16:53)
August 8	Atlas 5 - AEHF 5 (03:44)

There are a few public events happening around the city this week.  Join us at the Louise Riley and Forest Lawn branches of the Calgary Public Library to learn more about the sky during the Summer.

Date	Event
August 8	Astronomical Sights of Summer - Louise Riley (18:30-19:30)
August 10	Astronomical Sights of Summer - Forest Lawn (13:00-14:00)

Don't miss out on the amazing sights of the Summer sky.  It is getting darker earlier and the Sun is further below the horizon during the peak of night.  This is a great time to enjoy the Summer evenings with the stars above.  Get outside and enjoy the sky!