August Skyguide with Dr Ian ‘Astroblog’ Musgrave In Eastern evening skies, magnificent Saturn and Jupiter loom large in opposition. Over in the West, Venus has a nice encounter with a fine crescent moon on the 11th. Also in the west, brilliant but half-phased Venus dominates our evening skies for everyone, and if you have a low western horizon you’ll see Mercury catching up with Mars on the 19th and counterintuitively is actually brighter than Mars for a while. The centre of our Milky Way galaxy is directly overhead (and Ian has tips for avoiding getting a crick in your neck ;) For early risers, Saturn and Jupiter are also looking fine over in the West. In Ian’s Tangent, we hear how planets, and even the moon, have have been mistaken for other objects and recommends safe evening walks to re-familiarise ourselves with all the celestial wonders that gaze down on us with their awe-inspiring indifference. Ian’s ‘Astroblogger' website and ‘Southern Skywatch’ both come up as the first result in all search engines.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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