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Astronomy News 31 July 2025 - 5 August 2025

Skywatch Alert: Meteors, Auroras & a Planetary Spectacle on Aug 5–6, 2025

Skywatch Alert: Meteors, Auroras & a Planetary Spectacle on Aug 5–6, 2025

The Perseid meteor shower is already ramping up for Aug 5–6, 2025, with an expected 10–20 meteors per hour under dark skies after midnight. Perseids are famous for fireballs, producing bright meteors that can blaze through moonlight despite lunar glare. The full Sturgeon Moon occurs on Aug 9, and the peak nights Aug 11–13 will have 84–90% moonlight, washing out dimmer meteors. Venus and Jupiter form a dawn pair before sunrise on Aug 5–6, with Venus at magnitude -4.0 and Jupiter at about -1.9, about 7–8° apart. The Venus–Jupiter pair will reach its closest approach around Aug 11–12, when they’re
5 August 2025
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Planets Align, Meteors Fly, and Auroras? Skywatching Wonders on August 4–5, 2025

Planets Align, Meteors Fly, and Auroras? Skywatching Wonders on August 4–5, 2025

The Perseid meteor shower is active from mid-July to late August and is expected to peak around August 11–13 with up to about 100 meteors per hour under dark skies, though the full Sturgeon Moon on August 9 will brighten the sky and reduce counts to mostly the brightest fireballs. On August 4–5, the Moon is waxing gibbous at about 70–80% full, rising in the afternoon and setting in the pre-dawn, creating a darker window just before dawn for meteor watching. Observers could see roughly 10–20 meteors per hour in dark-sky conditions during late night to dawn on August 4–5.
4 August 2025
Cosmic Light Show Alert: Meteors, Auroras & Planetary Surprises Dazzle Aug 3–4, 2025

Cosmic Light Show Alert: Meteors, Auroras & Planetary Surprises Dazzle Aug 3–4, 2025

On Aug 3–4, 2025, the Perseid meteor shower is active with after-midnight rates of about a dozen meteors per hour under dark skies, though the peak on Aug 12–13 could reach about 100 meteors per hour in ideal conditions. The Southern Delta Aquariids, peaked July 29–30 and active until Aug 12, produce about 25 meteors per hour at best, with observers in the Southern Hemisphere seeing them best. The Alpha Capricornids are active until Aug 12, typically yielding up to 5 meteors per hour but famed for slow, bright fireballs. NOAA forecasters expect quiet to unsettled geomagnetic conditions Aug 3,
3 August 2025
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3I/ATLAS: The Fastest Interstellar Comet Ever—Here’s What Scientists Are Saying

Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS – Third Cosmic Visitor Unveiled, Fast and Enormous

3I/ATLAS is the third interstellar object ever recorded. It was first spotted on July 1, 2025 by the ATLAS survey telescope in Río Hurtado, Chile. The designation 3I/ATLAS marks it as the third interstellar object in our solar system. Its orbit is hyperbolic with an eccentricity of about 6.2, meaning it is unbound and will exit the solar system. A faint coma was observed around 3I/ATLAS within days of discovery, confirming it is a comet. The object was traveling over 60 km/s at discovery and about 68 km/s at perihelion. Perihelion was predicted for October 29–30, 2025 at roughly 1.4
2 August 2025
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You Won’t Believe Where the Next Total Solar Eclipse Will Happen – Upcoming Solar Eclipses from 2025 Onward

You Won’t Believe Where the Next Total Solar Eclipse Will Happen – Upcoming Solar Eclipses from 2025 Onward

September 21, 2025 – Partial Solar Eclipse visible mainly from the Southern Hemisphere, with up to 80% Sun obscured over the South Pacific, including Fiji, Tahiti, New Zealand, and parts of Antarctica. February 17, 2026 – Annular “ring of fire” over Antarctica, with annularity lasting about 2 minutes at maximum, while a partial eclipse will be visible across southern South America, southern Africa, and surrounding oceans. August 12, 2026 – Total Solar Eclipse crossing Greenland, Iceland, and northern Spain (plus a small corner of Portugal) with totality up to about 2 minutes 18 seconds. February 6, 2027 – Annular Solar
2 August 2025
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Blasting Off: The Ultimate Guide to Every Upcoming Rocket Launch Worldwide 🌎🚀

Blasting Off: The Ultimate Guide to Every Upcoming Rocket Launch Worldwide 🌎🚀

Aug 4, 2025: Blue Origin New Shepard NS-34 launches from Site One, West Texas, on a suborbital tourism flight carrying a private crew of six, Blue Origin’s 14th crewed mission. Aug 4, 2025: SpaceX Falcon 9 launches Starlink 10-30 from SLC-40, Cape Canaveral, delivering a batch of 22 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit, adding to SpaceX’s fleet of over 7,000 Starlinks in orbit. Aug 8, 2025: ULA Vulcan Centaur conducts USSF-106 from SLC-41, Cape Canaveral, marking its debut national security mission and replacing Atlas V with BE-4 engines to loft dozens of military satellites. Aug 12, 2025: Arianespace Ariane
2 August 2025
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Eyes to the Skies August 2–3, 2025: Meteor Showers, Auroras, and Planets Put on a Show

Eyes to the Skies August 2–3, 2025: Meteor Showers, Auroras, and Planets Put on a Show

During the Aug 2–3 predawn hours under dark skies at mid-northern latitudes, observers could see about 20 meteors per hour as the Perseids rise. The Moon is in first-quarter and will set in the early morning, washing out fainter Perseids and potentially reducing observed rates by about 75% near the maximum. Delta Aquariids are tapering after their July 30 peak and may contribute only a few meteors per hour on Aug 2–3, while Alpha Capricornids are sparse but known for bright fireballs. Saturn and Neptune are in conjunction on Aug 6, and during Aug 2–3 they rise together; Saturn is
2 August 2025
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Skywatchers’ Delight: Meteor Showers, Auroras & Planet Parade Light Up This Weekend (Aug 1–2, 2025)

Skywatchers’ Delight: Meteor Showers, Auroras & Planet Parade Light Up This Weekend (Aug 1–2, 2025)

The Perseids are active now and ramp toward their mid-August peak, with up to 50 to 100 meteors per hour at best, though moonlight will reduce counts. The Southern Delta Aquariids are active, producing about 3–4 meteors per hour in early August as they radiate from Aquarius and originate from Comet 96P/Machholz. Alpha Capricornids peaked on July 30 and typically yield about 2 meteors per hour, with slow, bright trails and occasional fireballs. NOAA forecasts active to G1 (Minor) geomagnetic storm conditions from August 1–4 due to a recurrent high-speed solar wind stream, raising the chance of auroras at high
1 August 2025
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Space Drama: Astronaut Launch Scrub, Secret Satellites & Surprise Alliances (July 31–Aug 1, 2025)

Space Drama: Astronaut Launch Scrub, Secret Satellites & Surprise Alliances (July 31–Aug 1, 2025)

On July 31, 2025, NASA’s Crew-11 mission to the ISS was scrubbed due to weather, with liftoff canceled just over a minute before launch and the crew—Zena Cardman, Mike Fincke, Kimiya Yui, and Oleg Platonov—set to retry on Aug. 1 at 11:43 a.m. ET. SpaceX Falcon 9 booster B1094 landed at Cape Canaveral’s Landing Zone 1 after the Crew-11 attempt, reportedly the final planned use of LZ-1 under new Space Force rules. The Crew-11 mission marked the sixth flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endeavour, setting a new reuse record for SpaceX crew capsules. By Aug. 2, Crew-11 docked with the
1 August 2025
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Sky Show Spectacular: Twin Meteor Showers, Planet Parade & Aurora Hints (July 31–Aug 1, 2025)

Sky Show Spectacular: Twin Meteor Showers, Planet Parade & Aurora Hints (July 31–Aug 1, 2025)

Delta Aquariids peak on the nights of July 30–31 with rates up to 15–20 meteors per hour in the Southern Hemisphere and fewer than 10 per hour from mid-northern latitudes, under a slender 25–30% lit Moon that sets early. Alpha Capricornids peak around July 30–31, averaging 2–5 meteors per hour, but delivering slow, bright fireballs that can rival Venus in brightness. With both showers active and a few early Perseids, observers under dark skies could see several dozen meteors per hour during July 30–Aug 1. On July 31 the Moon is a 30% illuminated crescent near Spica in Virgo, with
31 July 2025
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The Telescope Revolution of 2025–2026: From Backyard Stargazing to Giant Cosmic Eyes

The Telescope Revolution of 2025–2026: From Backyard Stargazing to Giant Cosmic Eyes

Celestron Origin Intelligent Home Observatory, introduced in 2024 and shipping through 2025, uses a 6-inch Rowe-Ackermann Schmidt Astrograph (RASA) at f/2.2 with an integrated 8.3-megapixel Sony STARVIS IMX178 color sensor, has no eyepiece, a fully motorized one-arm alt-azimuth mount with StarSense plate solving, built-in autofocus and dew control, and about 6 hours of cordless operation. The ZWO SeeStar S50, launched in 2023, is a portable 50 mm aperture triplet apochromatic telescope with a built-in color sensor, 64 GB storage, a dual-band nebula filter, a dew heater, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth control, and weighs about 2.5 kg. The DwarfLab DWARF III series includes the
31 July 2025
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Cosmic Objects That Could Hit Earth: Real Threats and What Scientists Are Saying

Cosmic Objects That Could Hit Earth: Real Threats and What Scientists Are Saying

101955 Bennu (1999 RQ36) is about 490 m in diameter and has a potential impact date of September 24, 2182 with a probability of about 1 in 2,700 (0.037%), though NASA says there is no chance of a hit for at least a century and a 1.4‑billion‑ton TNT impact could trigger an years‑long global “impact winter.” 1950 DA is roughly 1.3 km across and could hit on March 16, 2880 with a probability of about 1 in 34,500 (0.0029%), a Palermo value around −2.7, and an energy release of about 75 billion tons of TNT. 2023 TL4 is ~330 m
31 July 2025
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