Sky This Week - Thursday July 30 to Thursday August 6

Evening sky at 19:01 ACST (90 minutes after sunset) on Saturday, August 1 facing east as seen from Adelaide. Jupiter and Saturn are high above the Eastern horizon.

Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset), click to embiggen.

Morning sky on Monday, August 3 showing the eastern sky as seen from Adelaide at 5:41am ACST (90 minutes before sunrise). Crescent Venus is below the red star Aldebaran, the eye of Taurus the Bull, and is closest to one of the stars that define the tip of the horns of the Bull.  

Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes before sunrise), click to embiggen.

Morning sky on Saturday, August 1 showing the whole sky as seen from Adelaide at 5:41 am ACST (90 minutes before sunrise).

Four bright planets are visible stretching west to east. Jupiter, Saturn Mars and Venus. Venus is below the bright star Aldebaran.

Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time (90 minutes before sunrise)  click to embiggen.

Evening sky at 18:31 ACST (60 minutes after sunset) on Saturday, August 1 facing north-west as seen from Adelaide.

Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE has been entrancing viewers in the northern hemisphere and is now visible in our skies. It is difficult to make out in the twilight and may require binoculars to see. It will look like a fuzzy dot and a small tail might be visible if we are lucky.

Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes after sunset), click to embiggen.

Four bright planets grace the morning sky. 


Pluto Neptune and Uranus are also part of this line-up, but unable to be seen with the unaided eye.

Mercury is lost in the morning twilight.

Venus is below the bright red Aldebaran (the eye of the Bull). Venus is closest to one of the stars that define the tip of the horns of the Bull on August 3. 

 Mars is visible high in the morning sky to the north, east of Jupiter and Saturn. It enters the evening sky shortly before midnight but is still low to the horizon.
 
Jupiter is lowering in the morning sky and now can be readily seen in the early evening sky. Jupiter and Saturn stay around a hand-span apart during the week. Jupiter was at opposition, when it was biggest and brightest as seen from Earth, on July the 14th, but is still an excellent sight. The waxing Moon is between Jupiter 

Saturn is also lowering in the morning sky near Jupiter drawing away from Mars. It too is now visible in the early evening skies. Saturn was at opposition, when it was biggest and brightest as seen from Earth, on July the 21st, but is still an excellent sight.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEST, Western sky at 10 pm AEST. For further details and more information on what’s up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.

Star Map via Virtual sky. Use your mouse to scroll around and press 8 when your pointer is in the map to set to the current time.

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Here is the near-real time satellite view of the clouds (day and night) http://satview.bom.gov.au/