The Planets, August 2010

This page was last amended 1st August, 2010

Note: All times quoted on this web site are in Universal Time (UT) unless specifically stated otherwise. They are only "best estimates" and no responsibility can be accepted for errors. To convert to British Summer Time, add one hour.

The above diagram shows the times during  which the five "naked eye" planets are above the horizon at both the beginning and the end of the month.

To determine how to interpret this diagram, read on; otherwise, for additional information about the individual planets, click here.

The diagram represents a 24-hour period, time running from left to right from noon until noon the next day. This unconventional way of representing a 24-hour day is used so that the hours of darkness (which, generally, are of the greatest interest to astronomers) appear at the centre of the diagram.

The time from Sunset until Sunrise ("hours of darkness") are represented by two blocks of slightly differently coloured purple. They include the dusk and dawn twilight periods, although no attempt has been made to differentiate between these and full darkness. 

The times that the five naked-eye planets are above the horizon are shown for the beginning and end of the month, and are represented by the khaki-coloured blocks. The "tick"-marks pointing upwards from the "Beginning" and downwards from the "End" lines represent the planet's culmination.

The purple dot-and-dash lines extending downwards from the ends of the hours of darkness blocks in the two shades of purple help  you to determine when, if at all, each of the planets are visible.

Generally speaking, times of rising, setting and culmination for other times of the month can be roughly determined by interpolating between the times shown.

The above diagram was generated by the computer program PlanetRise (© 2007, M R Humphries), written in BBC BASIC for Windows.

More information on the planets in August 2010

It's not a particularly good month for planet spotting.

The best planetary viewing this appears just after Sunset on the 10th when Mars (magnitude +1.5), Saturn (magnitudes +1.1) and Venus (much brighter than the other two at magnitude -4.2) form a bright triangle, with Mars and Saturn about 10° above the WSW horizon and Venus about 2° below.  And you might, just might, see Mercury (magnitude +0.2) a degree or two above the W horizon.

Jupiter (magnitude -2.8) rises in the E at about 21:30 UT at the beginning of the month and sets about 09:30 the next morning, in broad daylight of course.  It crosses the sky throughout the hours of darkness, reaching some 40° above the S horizon about midnight.