August 2026

August 2026 Summary

August was mostly hot and dry, with some cloud and haze. The highlight was the solar eclipse on August 12^th. Despite the lack of moonlight, the Perseid meteor shower was disappointing, at least for me.

Sun

The sun is still quite well-placed August from the northern hemisphere. It was much more quiet after July and there were some days with a blank disc, at least the one facing Earth.

There was a significant solar eclipse on August 12^th and these images are under “Transient Events”

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55441235393/in/album-72157666438967194

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55465613178/in/album-72157666438967194/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55485950245/in/album-72157666438967194/

Moon

The moon was just past full at the start of the month but I was able to take lots of interesting images until it became a waning crescent. Later in the month, I was able to take some images either side of the full phase.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55439006790/in/album-72157668899851116

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55440867091/in/album-72157668899851116/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55447278378/in/album-72157668899851116/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55451339748/in/album-72157668899851116/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55487484630/in/album-72157668899851116/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55496009826/in/album-72157668899851116

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55497161401/in/album-72157668899851116/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55501066133/in/album-72157668899851116

Planets

Venus was getting lower in the evening sky, even though its angular separation from the sun was increasing. Saturn was becoming better-placed in the late evening but I did not manage a decent photograph of either planet, apart from an image of Venus on 16th.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55471095055/in/album-72157668899804626

Dwarf Planets/Asteroids

I photographed Pluto on August 7^th. This was a first for me.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55450867275/in/album-72177720328862844

Constellations

I processed some constellation images as by-products of meteor shoots.

·       Cassiopeia and Cepheus

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55446986668/in/album-72157666438989044

·       Perseus, Triangulum and Aries

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55451170801/in/album-72157666438989044

Deep Sky

True darkness returned to the night sky, getting longer as the month progressed. I explored new objects and revisited ones I had photographed before.

·       M11 in Serpens

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55438742353/in/album-72177720334983239

·       NGC6934 in Delphinus

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55446473085/in/album-72177720334983239/

·       M56 in Lyra

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55448251306/in/album-72177720334983239/

·       Melotte 20 in Perseus

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55447387032/in/album-72177720334983239/

·       NGC6811 in Cygnus

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55447387032/in/album-72177720334983239/

·       M74 in Pisces

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55451397933/in/album-72177720334983239/

·       NGC6910 in Cygnus

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55458035281/in/album-72177720334983239/

·       Iris Nebula in Cepheus

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55465332458/in/album-72177720334983239/

·       Pacman Nebula (NGC281) in Cassiopeia

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55472065546/in/album-72177720334983239/

·       NGC188 in Cepheus

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55484813623/in/album-72177720334983239/

·       NGC457 in Cassiopeia

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55485350575/in/album-72177720334983239/

·       Double star Dabih in Capricornus

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55487105241/in/album-72177720334983239/

 

Transient Events

The highlight was the solar eclipse on 12^th. I saw the lunar eclipse on 28^th but did not get a good photo. The Perseid meteor shower was somewhat of a disappointment, although other observers managed better views and photos than I did.

 

I photographed the moon with Saturn on August 2^nd.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55439147772/in/album-72157668626470961

I photographed a Perseid meteor on August 5^th.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55446725765/in/album-72157668626470961/

I photographed a sporadic (non-shower) meteor on August 11^th

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55459312374/in/album-72157668626470961/

I took lots of eclipse photos on August 12^th.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55458870622/in/album-72157668626470961/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55459134437/in/album-72157668626470961/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55460537380/in/album-72157668626470961/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55459191322/in/album-72157668626470961/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55460319393/in/album-72157668626470961/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55460387779/in/album-72157668626470961/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55460331673/in/album-72157668626470961/

 

I photographed a Perseid meteor on August 12^th.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55461136002/in/album-72157668626470961/

I caught the moon with Saturn on 30^th and, again, on 31^st.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55496497642/in/album-72157668626470961/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55501106645/in/album-72157668626470961

August 2026 Photo Album

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/albums/72177720334983239

August 2026 Full Report

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Messier Objects

August 31^st 2230 GMT Moon and Saturn

I took a full disc video of the moon with the Seestar S50, which I later stacked.

I took an image of Saturn in Stargazing mode with the Seestar S50 to try and photograph some moons. I caught Titan and, possibly, one other moon.

I took a video of Saturn in Stargazing mode, which I stacked, to show the rings.

I combined the two photos to form a composite.

I took a photograph of the moon with Saturn with my phone camera.

August 31^st 0110 GMT Moon with Saturn

Even though it was raining, the sky cleared a bit, so I photographed the moon with Saturn with the DSLR camera at 100mm focal length, ISO6400 and 1/30 second exposure.

August 31st 2330 GMT Moon with Saturn

I caught  the moon with Saturn with my phone camera.

August 30^th 2330 GMT Mixed Session

The sky had cleared after a very rainy day. I started with a video of the moon with the Seestar S50.

I did some still shots and a video of Saturn with the Seestar S50.

I took shots of the moon, together with Saturn with the phone camera and DSLR.

I combined the photo of the moon with Saturn with the individual photos of the moon and Saturn to obtain this composite image.

I aimed the Seestar S50 at the open star cluster M34 in Perseus. This was a single integration of 58 minutes.

August 28^th 2230 GMT Moon

The moon was just past full and very bright. Moving cloud made lunar photography difficult and anything else impossible. I took full disc and closeup videos of the moon with the Seestar S50, which I later stacked.

August 28^th 0900 GMT Sun

I did a solar shoot with the Seestar S50. Moving cloud ruined any chance of a video but I took some still full disc and closeup shots.

August 28^th 0330 GMT Lunar Eclipse

I was awake in the night and saw the lunar eclipse low in the west. The sky was very clear and I saw Orion low in the east of a very clear sky. The eclipse was near maximum but an attempt with a hand-held DSLR camera did not do it justice, although I caught the redness of the eclipsed part.

August 27^th 2245 GMT Moon

My lunar shoot turned out to be longer than expected! First, I had to update the firmware on the Seestar S50. Then it couldn't find the moon, so I used the globular star cluster M15 as a sighter, where I stacked three 20 second exposures. I finally took a full disc video of the moon, which I later stacked.

August 25th 0810 GMT Sun 

Against the weather forecast, there was some early clear sky. I took a full disc video of the sun and some still closeup with the Seestar S50.

August 24th 2140 GMT NGC663

I photographed the open star cluster NGC663 in Cassiopeia with the Seestar S50. 30 seconds exposure led to star trailing, so I switched to 20 seconds. I only managed 15 exposures, due to cloud.

August 24^th 2100 GMT Moon and a Double Star

I shot a full disc video of the moon with the Seestar S50.

I shot a 2 minute integration of the double star Dabih in Capricornus with the Seestar S50.

August 24^th 0940 GMT Sun

I took a full disc video of the sun with the Seestar S50 and some still closeups.

August 23rd 2140 GMT NGC457

I used the Seestar S50 to take 202 thirty second exposures of the open star cluster NGC457 in Cassiopeia. I stacked them in Sequator and finished in GraXpert and GIMP.

August 22^nd 2130 GMT NGC188

 

August 22^nd 0850 GMT Sun

I photographed the sun with my Mak telescope/DSLR combination at 1.54 metres focal length, ISO100 and 1/500 second exposure. I stacked 22 images in Autostakkert and finished in GIMP. New activity had rorarted on, with a large sunspot group, with lots of small sunspots.

 

August 20^th 2235 GMT Binocular Session

After a rainy day, there was some clear sky to the east but the patchy moving cloud dissuaded me from trying long exposure photography. I took my 15x70 binoculars out to see what I could find.

First up was the star cluster Melotte 20, a personal favourite. It was very clear, despite some misty cloud covering part of it. The next easy object was the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). I could see its full extent and even saw a meteor pass through the field of view. It was not a Perseid meteor, as it was travelling in the opposite direction. I could not see M33, hardly a surprise in these conditions. I was able to see the star cluster M34 in Perseus and the famous Double Cluster. The brightest open cluster in Cassiopeia (M52) was visible but not inspiring. I saw Saturn but there was no sign of Titan.

August 19^th 1430 GMT Sun

I took a full disc video of the sun, which I later stacked and some 4x zoom still closeups.

August 17^th 2130 NGC 281 Pacman Nebula

I used the Seestar S50 to photograph the Pacman Nebula (NGC281). I ran a single integration of 91 minutes and finished in GIMP.

August 17^th 1945 GMT Moon and Venus

The moon and Venus were low in the south west and I could not capture them with the Seestar S50. I used my DSLR camera instead. The lunar images did not work, due to cloud but I managed to capture Venus with the DSLR camera set at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/100 second exposure.

August 17^th 1555 GMT Sun

I photographed the sun with my Mak telescope and DSLR camera at 1.54 metres focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure. I stacked 23 frames in Autostakkert and finished in GIMP. There was a hint of Newton's Rings but I captured a few sunspots.

August 15^th 1035 GMT Sun

I tried to find the sun using my Mak and DSLR but the sun was too high in the sky.

The Seestar S50 was not much easier. It did not find the sun, so I used the Skymap and Scenery modes to eventually find it. I took a full disc video and still close ups.

August 13^th 2140 GMT Meteor Hunt

I set a camera trap using my DSLR camera at my usual settings.

At 2144 GMT, I saw a bright magnitude -2 meteor travel from Cepheus to Aquarius but it was not a shower meteor.

At 2234 GMT, I caught a faint Perseid meteor.

August 12^th 2150 GMT Iris Nebula

I photographed the Iris Nebula with the Seestar S50. I processed a single inegration of 112 minutes and processed in GIMP.

August 12^th 2130 GMT Meteor Hunt

I set up my DSLR camera to take photos automatically, at my usual settings.

At 2220 GMT, I caught a bright Perseid meteor.

At 0035 GMT, I caught a faint short-trail meteor near the bright stars of  Perseus.

August 12th 1715 GMT Partial Solar Eclipse

This was a rather exciting event, where I was joined by several neighbours in Corsham. I photographed the eclipse with my Seestar S50 smart telescope and DSLR camera, set at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/1000 second exposure. I followed the eclipse past maximum, until the sun disappeared behind some trees. During the maximum, Venus became visible.

Some neighbours looked through eclipse glasses and others looked through my Baader filters.

At 1722 GMT I captured the start of the eclipse and saw some sunspots with the Seestar S50.

The next image was 1725 GMT.

The next image was 1732 GMT.

The next image was 1736 GMT.

This image was at 1742 GMT.

This was 1745 GMT.

This was 1749 GMT.

This was at 1751 GMT.

This was 1756 GMT.

This was 1759 GMT.

This was at 1805 GMT.

This was 1810 GMT.

This was 1814 GMT, the maximum extent of the eclipse.

This was 1816 GMT.

This was 1821 GMT.

At 1825 GMT, the sun and moon were low in the sky and passed behind some trees. 

As I was using the Seestar S50, I was also using a DSLR camera. I held it manually and took shots using settings of 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/1000 second exposure.

At 1720 GMT, I caught a better start to the eclipse than I did with the Seestar S50.

This was at 1722 GMT.

This was at 1838 GMT,

This was 1844 GMT.

This was 1750 GMT.

This was 1800 GMT.

This was 1808 GMT.

This was 1814 GMT.

This was 1822 GMT.

At 1824 GMT, Venus was visible.

This was 1826 GMT.

This was 1830 GMT.

At 1834 GMT, this was the last shot before the sun sunk below the trees.

August 11^th 2150 GMT Northern Polar Region

I used Framing mode to try to capture stars near Polaris. I set the area to 2.0x and increased the exposure time to 30 seconds. I ran a total integration time of 156 minutes and finished in GraXpert and GIMP. The Engagement Ring asterism is to the left of Polaris, the bright star in the middle.

August 11^th 2130 GMT Meteor Hunt

I had another go at capturing the Perseid meteor shower, using my normal method.

At 2315 GMT, I caught s bright short-trail meteor just left (east) of Ursa Minor.

At 2331 GMT, I caught another non-shower meteor near Ursa Major.

August 11^th 0035 GMT Saturn and M2

I tried to capture Saturn in Stargazing mode. Although I could see two moons and many background stars, the Seestar S50 did not accept the image. In Solar System mode, I captured some images to show Saturn with Titan and another set to show Saturn on its own.

I combined the two images from the Seestar S50 to form a composite of Saturn with Titan.

I attempted to capture M2 with the Seestar S50.

August 10^th 2145 GMT Meteor Hunt

The sky was starting to clear in the east. I aimed my DSLR camera a bit higher in the sky, with my usual settings of 18mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 6 seconds exposure. My intervalometer was working again, so I was able to take repeated exposures automatically.

I stacked the first 160 frames in two stages but the result was not as good as a similar attempt two days previously. I caught the stars of each constellation, though.

At 2307 GMT, I saw a bright, short-trail meteor near Polaris. It was probably sporadic.

At 0023 GMT, I caught another bright short-trail meteor to the bottom of the image, to the left.

At 0028 GMT, I caught a short-trail Perseid meteor to the bottom left of the image.

August 10^th 2130 GMT NGC6910

With the southern and eastern skies covered in haze, I photographed the open star cluster NGC6910 in Cygnus. I took 720 frames (2 hours), stacked in Sequator and finished in GraXpert and GIMP. I also caught some background nebulousity.

August 10^th 2000 GMT Venus

Venus was low in the sky, so I could not use the Seestar S50. Instead, I opted for a hand-held DSLR camera at 300mm focal length, ISO400 and 1/100 second exposure.

August 8th 0045 GMT Meteor Hunt , Moon and Deep Sky 

I continued the meteor Hunt by doing the 6 second exposures manually.

At 0132 GMT I saw a faint sporadic meteor travel from Andromeda towards Saturn.

I did not capture any meteors this time but processed 20 photos in Sequator, GraXpert anf GIMP to produce an image of the constellations of Perseus, Triangulum and Aries. The Perseus Double Cluster, Andromeda Galaxy and Triangulum Galaxy are visible, if you look closely.

I took a video of the moon with the Seestar S50 which I later stacked.

I used the Seestar S50 to capture some images of the globular star cluster M2 and the galaxy M74. I hoped to stack them with other images of them.

20 images of M2 did not produce anything exciting.

483 images of M74 was a different story.

August 8^th 2345 GMT Meteor Hunt

It was probably the battery on my remote shutter control going flat but I was only able to take single shots. Instead, I used star trailing with my DSLR camera, as I hoped to capture meteors. I did not capture any meteors on the first two photos and the star trail images was way overexposed.

August 7^th 2230 GMT NGC6811

I photographed the open star cluster NGC6811 in Cygnus with the Seestar S50. I stacked 413 images.

August 7th 2226 GMT Meteor

I saw a bright magnitude -6 meteor flash through Ophiuchus.

August 7^th 2215 GMT Pluto

I photographed Pluto with the Seestar S50 for the first time. It is just under the "P" in the text on the photo.

August 7^th 0720 GMT Sun

I photographed the sun with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54 metres focal length, ISO 100 and1/500 second exposure. The sun was very quiet.

August 7th 0040 GMT Mixed Session

While the Seestar S50 was finishing on M56, I brought my DSLR camera out and photographed Saturn at 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure, hoping to capture some moons. This did not work.

I aimed the camera at Melotte 20, taking multiple shots at 100mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 6 seconds exposure. This did work! I used "hierarchical" stacking (2-stage) by stacking 88 images in two stages (8 groups of 10 and one of 8) using accumulation and stacking the groups using best pixel, in Sequator. I finished in GIMP.

I took a video of the moon with the Seestar S50 for later stacking.

I photographed the galaxy M74 with the Seestar S50.

At 0124 GMT I saw a very blight sporadic meteor flashing south through Aries. It seemed to be about magnitude -2.

August 6^th 2235 GMT M56

With lots of haze and low cloud near the horizon, I went for the globular star cluster M56, as it was near the zenith, with the Seestar S50. I stacked 543 ten second sub exposures in Sequator (about 90 minutes integration) and finished in GraXpert and GIMP.

August 6h 0835 GMT Sun

I photographed the sun with my Mak telescope and DSLR camera at 1.54 metres focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

August 6th 0025 GMT Moon and Saturn

I took videos of the moon and Saturn with the Seestar S50, which I later stacked.

I used both my phone camera and DSLR camera to capture the moon and Saturn together.

Neither of these sets of shots worked.

August 5th 2145 GMT NGC6934 and Meteor Hunt

I photographed the globular star cluster NGC6934 in Delphinus. I took 306 ten second exposures and stacked them in Sequator. I finished in GraXpert and GIMP.

At 2235 GMT I started my hunt for Perseid meteors. I aimed my DSLR camera at Cassiopeia at 18mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 6 seconds exposure, my normal settings for meteor hunts.

At 2321, I caught a bright short trail meteor west (right) of Cassiopeia but it was not a member of the Perseid shower.

At 2325 GMT, I caught another bright meteor but, this time, it was a true Perseid shower member, with a short trail.

At 2343 GMT, I caught another short trail Perseid meteor.

I used hierarchical (2-stage) stacking of 100 shots, as a by-product of the meteor hunt to show the constellations of Cassiopeia and Cepheus.

August 5^th 1330 GMT Sun

I took a full disc and closeup videos of the sun with the Seestar S50, which I later stacked. It seemed very quiet.

August 3^rd 0950 GMT Sun

I photographed the sun with my Mak telescope and DSLR camera. I used a focal length of 1.54 metres and ISO100. As I was stacking more images (46 this time), I tried using an exposure  of 1/1000 second, instead of 1/500 second. I'm not totally convinced which approach is better.

August 3^rd 0055 GMT Moon and Saturn

I took a full disc video of the moon using the Seestar S50, which I later stacked.

I took some still shots of Saturn at 1x zoom and 4x zoom in an attempt to catch Titan and also to try and get a decent shot of the rings.

I took a photo of the moon with Saturn with my phone camera.

August 2nd 0035 GMT Moon with Saturn

I photographed the moon with Saturn using my phone camera.

August 1^st 2230 GMT Moon and M11

I took a full disc video of the moon with the Seestar S50, which I later stacked.

I was hoping to capture some objects in the Capricornus/Aquarius area but haze and moonglow ruined the view. The Wild Duck Cluster (M11) was better-placed in the sky. I stacked 571 10 second sub-exposures in Sequator then finished in GraXpert and GIMP.

August 1^st 1227 GMT Sun

I took a full disc video of the sun with the Seestar S50, which I later stacked.

I also took some still close-up shots.

August 1^st 0045 GMT Moon and Saturn

I photographed the moon and Saturn with my phone camera.

August 1^st 0012 GMT Meteor

While checking to see whether the clouds were clearing, I saw a bright magnitude -2 meteor, probably a Perseid, flash south west towards Saturn.

August 1^st 2345 GMT Moon

There were a few gaps in the cloud but I managed to take a full disc video of the moon, which I later stacked.