Namibia's night sky in August: supermoon and meteor shower

Make a note of 19 August and get your camera ready. Because on this evening, Namibia's starry sky offers a very special spectacle: a supermoon. For impressive photos with a telephoto lens, it is best to look for a location with a view of a distant subject on the eastern horizon. 

It's not only full moon. The moon is also 'just' 361,000 kilometres away from the earth. That is only a short distance from the closest point (357,379 kilometres) of its orbit around the Earth. Its disc in our sky therefore appears almost 14 percent larger than at the furthest point (406,120 km) of its elliptical orbit. This event is also known as 'supermoon'. 

From 3 to 25 August, you can also observe a meteor shower. The shooting stars only glow briefly because they enter the atmosphere almost directly against the Earth's rotation. On the evenings before and after 19 August, the bright moon of course somewhat steals the show from this spectacle.

Jupiter and Mars getting closer and closer to each other 

As far as the planets are concerned, the morning sky is still a little more exciting than the evening sky. Jupiter and Mars are getting closer and closer to each other. In mid-August, they rise almost simultaneously on the eastern horizon shortly before 3.00 am. 

Saturn has already passed its highest point in the night sky by this time, but remains visible until dawn. The ringed planet appears in the evening sky in the east at around 8.20 pm. 

It relieves Venus, so to speak, which bows out at 8.00 pm in the west. Mercury cannot be seen at all at the moment. This is because, as seen from Earth, it hangs around directly in front of the Sun. 

You can find out more about the starry sky in August in the Astro-News by Lutz von Dewitz in the news section on the website of the Namibia Scientific Society. 

Sven-Eric Stender