The Perseid meteor shower peaks on the night of August 12 into the early hours of August 13, 2025. The peak occurs three days after a full moon, so bright moonlight reduces fainter meteors and you may see about 10–20 meteors per hour under moonlit skies. In North America and Europe, the peak is the…
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StellaLyra 8″ f/6 and Apertura AD8 are both 203 mm (8″) parabolic-mirror Dobsonians with a 1200 mm focal length (≈ f/6). Vaonis Vespera II uses a 50 mm f/5 quadruplet apochromatic refractor with a built‑in camera and a Sony IMX585 sensor (8.3 MP). The StellaLyra and Apertura are manual Dobsonians on wooden alt-az mounts, while…
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The Celestron NexStar 8SE is a 203 mm Schmidt-Cassegrain with a GoTo computerized fork mount and f/10 optics, delivering bright, detailed views but at a high price for beginners. The Sky-Watcher 8-inch Dobsonian is a 203 mm reflector on a manual alt-azimuth mount with f/6, offering a large light bucket at low cost but no…
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The Venus–Jupiter conjunction occurs August 11–13, 2025, with its closest approach on August 12 at about 0.86° apart. Venus will shine around magnitude -4.0 and Jupiter around -1.8 to -2 during the pairing. The pair sits about 35° from the Sun, enabling viewing in a dark dawn sky. Observers should view about 45 minutes to…
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On August 23, 2025, the Moon undergoes a seasonal Black Moon New Moon in Virgo at 06:06 UTC, the third New Moon in a season with four. The Dumbbell Nebula, M27, in Vulpecula is a bright planetary nebula visible throughout August 2025 and was first discovered by Charles Messier in 1764. Mars in August 2025…
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On August 10, six planets—Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—will line up in a broad arc in the pre-dawn sky. Four of these planets (Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn) are visible to the naked eye, while Uranus and Neptune require binoculars or a small telescope. NASA notes that planetary parades of this kind occur only…
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The Beaver Moon occurs on November 5, 2025, with peak illumination at 13:19 GMT (8:19 a.m. EST). At peak, the Moon will be about 356,980 km (221,818 miles) from Earth, roughly 7.9% closer and about 16% brighter than an average full Moon. It’s a supermoon—the biggest and brightest full Moon of 2025, and the closest…
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On September 7, 2025, the Moon reaches full phase around 18:09 UTC and participates in a total lunar eclipse. Totality lasts about 82–83 minutes, making it the longest total lunar eclipse since 2022. About 6.2 billion people (roughly 77% of the world’s population) could witness at least part of the eclipse. During totality the Moon…
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The Perseid meteor shower peaks on August 12–13, 2025, with 50–75 meteors per hour under dark skies and up to ~100 per hour in ideal conditions, though moonlight will reduce counts to about 10–20 per hour. The Moon will be full on August 9, 2025 and will be a waning gibbous about 84% illuminated during…
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The Perseid meteor shower is active August 9–10, 2025, with peak activity expected August 12–13 and up to 100 meteors per hour at peak under ideal dark skies. The full Moon, known as the Sturgeon Moon, reaches full on August 9, 2025 at 3:55 a.m. EDT (07:55 GMT) and will dominate the sky that night.…
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