Overview

• The Perseid meteor shower peaks overnight August 12–13 with up to 100 meteors per hour, but more than 80 percent moon illumination from the August 9 full moon is expected to diminish fainter streaks.
• Venus and Jupiter will form a striking conjunction on the morning of August 12, appearing only 53 arcminutes apart and presenting a bright “double star” at dawn.
• Lesser meteor streams include the Eta-Eridanids peaking on August 7 and the Kappa-Cygnids reaching about three meteors per hour at their August 16 maximum.
• Saturn will shine nearly all night throughout August as Mars fades from view by mid-month and Mercury appears in dawn twilight through late August.
• Astronomy organizations in Berlin, Potsdam and the Rhön Sternenpark have scheduled planetarium programs and dark-sky star parties to help observers work around heavy moonlight.