August 16, 2023
New moon occurred this morning at approximately 4 am. The days around a new moon are ideal times to get into deep sky observing. Deep sky objects are galaxies, nebulae and star clusters which tend to appear faint and diffuse. When near the new moon, bright moonlight will not interfere with views of these faint objects. A good deep sky object to find in August is Messier 31 – the Andromeda Galaxy – which is best seen after midnight this time of year.
The eastern sky as it will appear at midnight tonight. Both Jupiter and Saturn are visible. Additionally, it is possible to find the Andromeda Galaxy in the constellation of Andromeda. Star map created using Stellarium